The Shadow and the Light Trilogy
by ZeoViolet
Summary: This was up on Cynthia's site, once upon a time before it was shut down. I've resurrected it here and on Mouse's site. Another Cassie/Phantom thingy, but with some unusual twists. Read on.......
1. The Shadow and the Light

Disclaimer: Buena Vista's distributing the Power Rangers at the moment, I think. Starhawk, I'm officially dedicating this series to you, 1. because you liked it so much and 2. because you are writing one of the longest continuing series I've ever seen, not to mention how much I *enjoy* reading it and have been for around six or so years now.  
  
*grins* This series was based upon a rumor I once heard on the internet, years ago, that the identity of the Phantom Ranger was supposedly Shadow, Divatox's son. While I never placed any store in that rumor, it did intrigue me, and this trilogy came out as a result. Plus, I always wondered what the Phantom Ranger's mysterious "third message" was, and it resulted in this rather romantic take on it.  
  
The Shadow and the Light by ZeoViolet Teaser: How Divatox's son found his way...toward the light.  
  
The one known as the Phantom Ranger stood in the shadows that the jungle of Hercuron afforded him. The pain in his side was nothing compared with the two other types of pain, the emotional ones, that assaulted his senses at the moment.  
  
Of course, Divatox had long since departed. She would be, suspecting him gone. And why would she care? She did not know who he really was, and he doubted she would still wanted him alive in any case, not after what he had done, betrayal in the name of justice.  
  
The other was the one light in the shadow's world of darkness that enveloped him, surrounded him even as he worked for the side of brightness, of hope. This one light, pink-hued, had finally given him a purpose for being more than just....just a shadow, a ghost, as his handle truly implied.  
  
Shadow. What a handle his mother had wished upon him. However, that was truly his name, one he supposed in his younger days he would live up to.  
  
But he had seen the light, seen the brightness in all the dark evil that had surrounded his childhood. It had caused him to rebel, to run, run toward the service of the light even as his soul remained in the darkness...of lonliness and despair.  
  
He had another name, he supposed. His mother had been adopted, he knew, and her adoptive family always had two names, the common and the secret one. He barely knew his secret one, Tar'yn, and it was used so seldom he had all but forgotten it. He was Shadow, and he expected to forever remain Shadow as long as he lived.  
  
At least he had supposed that until....*she* came into his life, however on the fringes it seemed. She came from a little ball of rock and water in a remote corner of the Milky Way Galaxy, from a "technologically sheltered" people. It had not seemed she would catch his attention, but she had.  
  
And when he had first seen her, for the first time in a long time, a ray of light filled his shadowed world. She walked with an aura about her, an aura of the special light in his life he had always sought, but never could find.  
  
Until then. Until now, even.  
  
But the light was *too* bright for a shadowed being like him, he knew. He had heard her merry laugh, had seen the bright, even sweetly innocent, twinkle in her eyes, a look that had hardly changed except for the maturity she had gained, the type that comes with having ranger experience. Even now, she was the same sweet, endearing, light-filled person that had invaded his heart to the darkest depths, and warmed it with the brightness that was Cassie Chan.  
  
It had seemed too good to be true. Impossible. He was the Phantom Ranger. He had once been evil. He did not deserve someone as special as she....he was from the shadows. And even had he been from the light, he doubted he would have the heart to draw her into the dark fringes the Phantom Ranger still occupied, with his dangerous missions of helping worlds in peril.  
  
If he lost her, he would be lost. He would no longer be an ally to the light, or an enemy to the dark side. For he would not exist.  
  
Far better to never expose her to that at all and keep her alive, and keep his own heart livid with pain and longing, than have her dead, especially at his hands.  
  
He supposed he could live, seeing her only from a distance, seeing her on the Universal News Syndicate with tears of agony slipping heedlessly down his face, if it would guarantee her safety in the long run.  
  
Only a small part of his mind told him that was foolish. She was a Power Ranger, placing her life in danger at *any* rate. She could still die.  
  
And with her death, that one small ray of light in his heart would be extinguished. Even if she did not truly feel for him more than friendship, he had fallen in love, and he clung to that one small, bright beam for all it was worth.  
  
For it had been the first real love he had ever experienced. And no doubt his last.  
  
His mother had never cared, he reflected as he set up the recording device. An accidental pregancy, she had often called him on her rantings. He had no idea who his father was, only some Eltaran drifter, she had said.  
  
And still, she had kept him, determined to raise him in her image. For his first century or so, his life had been pirate raidings, intimidating people, and trying to sitfle his near genetic impulse to ask questions. His mother never seemed to ask, she just took, gaining her millions of riches solely by thievery.  
  
He had not questioned her actions. He had been raised to believe it normal. And he followed suit, although he did not understand why people kept telling him he was not evil and brutal enough. They were after riches, right? As long as they got them, why waste time hurting the people they took them from?  
  
Until that fateful day he saw his first ray of light...the light of truth. He had suddenly developed empathic powers he supposed came from his father's side of the family, and when he saw the torture his mother was inflicting on some of her victims....he felt their pain. It had rained down on him, splashing his senses with wave after wave of pain, despair, and desperation.  
  
He had managed to make it out of the room before he had screamed in agony.  
  
That night, though his mother had strictly forbidden it, he had crept in unnoticed. He had healed their wounds as best as he could, whispering heartfelt apologies, trying to explain he had not realized....how it had been from a victim's point of view.  
  
He had seen the light.  
  
He had set them free, he could not bear to have his mother get at them again. Before they left, one of the victims, an Eltaran had turned to him and looked into his eyes.  
  
"You have seen the light, son," he had said with his voice thick with ancient wisdom. "Leave this place, as soon as you can, before the light of truth and justice gets extinguished from your heart with the blackness of lies and evil."  
  
Shadow could only nod, his mouth frozen, as the man whispered one more thanks before he had vanished into the airlock where his ship had awaited. They had escaped, safe and sound.  
  
"I forbid you to leave!" Divatox had screeched when he told her of his intent. "You are my son, born of my flesh! You owe me!"  
  
"How!" he yelled back, for the first time truly defying her to her face. "You do not love me, it is a word foreign to you. You said so yourself, I was an accident, never meant to be born! Well, this accident is leaving, *Divatox*, and will never darken your doorstep again!"  
  
"I will never forgive you!" she yelled to his back as he turned. "You may walk towards those who claim to be good, filled with light, but your life will always be shadow, always be black! You will never love, and you will die of lonliness and despair! Soon you will be ice, and when you come crawling back to me, I will refuse you! You will always live up to the name--*Shadow*!!!"  
  
Even as her only evident answer from him was his firmly departing back--for he had never looked over his shoulder, not once--she most likely had no idea what her words had done to him. Despite his best intentions, they had stung like fire.  
  
And for the most part, had remained with him on his flight to the side of good. Even there, the name of Shadow had developed a reputation, and he had found it difficult to fit in as people had a hard time accepting him. The name haunted him, although he never considered changing it.  
  
He had managed to make his way to Eltare, hoping to find out who his father was. He still did not know, but with the mission of the Eltaran Voyagers he had heard about, he had at last seen a way towards acceptance.  
  
For being a ranger, forever hiding his identity as he battled evil, who would guess that he had been spawned from the same evil pool?  
  
His mother would never guess or know that it was her own weapons fire on him one day during battle a couple of centuries later that had sealed him forever to his ruby, due to radiation. He doubted, though, if she had known, she would have cared.  
  
It suited him in another way, for the Phantom Ranger was well enough associated with shadows, so most, while appreciating and idolizing him for his help, also kept him at arm's distance. So, his mother's words were ringing true--he was indeed living up to his name of Shadow. It seemed to suit him most of the time, for he had been raised with feelings kept at a distance.  
  
So even as he kept to the light of justice and goodness, his heart remained in the shadows, dormant for the most part, outside of his empathy and compassion that compelled him so.  
  
And then, one day, the emptiness in his heart had been replaced by a new warmth, and a new pain, as Cassie Chan walked into the outer fringes of his life. She still managed to warm his heart like a supergiant sun....and hit him with the worse pain he had ever felt, knowing that surely, he could never have her.  
  
How could she feel anything for somebody who kept disappearing, who was like a ghost, seemingly from the outer fringes of reality? Such a person was fit for being thanked for their help, but keeping people uneasy because he was so...well, so much shadow-walking.  
  
How could she feel anything different? How could he impose himself on someone as pure as she was, who had probably never felt the real sting of the dark side a day in her life?  
  
He found it impossible to believe, even as she caused him to feel...*really* feel for the first time; caused him to cry in despair at times, the first time he had cried since babyhood. His mother had made him turn off his tears as soon as he could talk...with threats of dire punishment if he did not. He had forgotten how to cry....until he felt the pain that he would feel with love at last....and knowing it was not reciprocated, or possible.  
  
Now, as he left his message, and he turned it off, he felt the pain more keenly again of despair, because Cassie had been by his side again...touching him. For at that moment, he could not stand it. She had seemed so concered....more than anyone had ever really showed him in a long, long time. She had not wanted to leave, but he had made her...lest he say something that would make her uncomfortable or hurt....a sight he would not be able to bear. But if she was worried, he had to reassure her.  
  
Impulsively, he flipped the recording device back on. "I'll be all right, Cassie." sudden words leaped out of his mouth before he could contain them. "Please, don't forget me. I'll see you soon."  
  
As soon as he had turned the device back off, he swore. How could he have said that? He could not erase it. Now she would really wonder, and he did not want to deal with a confrontation that would surely destroy him.  
  
He managed to stagger to his feet, not noticing as he accidentally brushed the side of the device, turning it back on. It's recording time was almost up, but there was just enough for it to catch him saying, in utter despair, "Cassie, I love you so much....why can't you love me like I love you?"  
  
He left it to automatically click into rewind as he reached for his teleporter button. Because she had been here, it would remain forever haunted with her sweet, soulful presence. And since her heart and soul were not his to claim, he could not remain. It would be far too painful.  
  
****  
  
The unforgiveably hot winds of Hercuron swirled around her, rufling her long, silky dark hair and blowing it into her large, almond-shaped eyes. What had brought her here, exactly? What had made her creep out of the Megaship in the middle of the night and hop on her Galaxy Glider? The Phantom Ranger was long gone, what footsteps of fate had deemed that she return here?  
  
As if posessed, she walked unbidden towards the recording device the Phantom Ranger had left for her and her friends. Was it because it had belong to him? Because he had touched it, left the imprint of his essence there?  
  
She found it, sinking down on the thick foliage of the dark forest floor with only her flashlight to guide her way. The proximity sensors on the recording device came on, and it started to repeat the messages she had already heard. But...just to hear his voice again, the voice of the man who had stolen her heart and soul. She sometimes wondered how she could ever give her heart to another person...when it was no longer there. The organ that thumped in her chest had lost all meaning, except as a muscle that kept her alive. It was no longer her heart, just...an organ.  
  
"I knew you'd return, Rangers, but I've left to follow Dark Spectre...." his cherished tenor voice echoed on the wind as she wrapped her arms around her knees and closed her eyes, feeling tears stinging the backs of her lids. The light from the flashlight shone on her face, but did not reach and warm up the emptiness that was underneath, the emptiness that had remained there since she had heard the words, "I go where I am needed, and I stay, for as long as I am needed." Those words had seemed to imply to her that he felt no more than friendship, and perhaps gratefulness, to her for saving his life. Nothing more, and he walked away, taking all the real light in her life with her.  
  
The light of her heart, her soul, unable to be recovered for her to give to another.  
  
All that had been left had been the light she had projected to her friends, as artificial as the flourescent light bulbs in school, bright, but without much warmth. She still had genuine caring and compassion for all...all but herself. After all, there must have been something that remained or she could not have been a Power Ranger. But nothing really substantial.  
  
Her personal light had been extinguished.  
  
Only to flare again today, briefly, when they had touched. She tried not to flinch when the second recording played, the one that had caught her so by surprise, because of his tone. "I'll be all right, Cassie. Please, don't forget me...I'll see you soon."  
  
If he did not care, then why had he said that? It simply had to be empty hope on her part as his image blinked out again. Feeling deflated, she started to rise...and stopped abruptly as the recorder flared to life one more time.  
  
She sat in stunned silence as she saw the Phantom Ranger's image of him clutching his side and obviously injured in a way that was now evident he'd tried to hide from them, walk out of recording range, but she heard his voice unmistakably say, in heart-wrenching despair, "Cassie, I love you so much....why can't you love me like I love you?"  
  
She had never heard his voice so filled with despair, with pain. Love! He loved her? After all the indifference he had showed...he loved her after all?  
  
Was it truly possible he had been hiding feelings, like she had because he had never indicated any before this? Why? Had he not known how she felt? How much she loved him, how hard she had fallen, so hard she knew she could never really love again?  
  
As the recording flickered off, she could no longer contain her tears. She pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them, burying her face in them as she cried without a sound, the silence pressing in on her from the vast jungle on all sides, making her feel quite the lonliest person in the universe.  
  
*I love you too, Phantom, whoever you truly are....*  
  
****  
  
*Return to Hercuron.*  
  
The nagging voice inside of him would not cease, no matter now much he turned the voice aside.  
  
*Return to Hercuron.*  
  
Louder and louder it had become, this voice of his own mind, and it was driving him nearly crazy on top of all the other mental anguish he was feeling.  
  
Why return? Who would? Cassie's ghost would be there, nothing more. The sweet ghost of her presence, the reminder that she would never be his, would be enough, he had little doubt, to drive him over the brink of sanity.  
  
*Return to Hercuron!*  
  
Fate. He could suddenly feel it pull it's arms around him, somehow fate had to be involved in this, no matter how much he did not want to return to Hercuron. He had learned never to ignore his instinct when it came to duty...something had to be wrong, or he had left something on Hercuron....he did not know.  
  
Finally, just to silence the voice, he ordered the computer to turn his ship around. The beacon he had set out would continue to track Zordon while he was gone.  
  
****  
  
He materialzed to near-solid darkness. Of course, it was the middle of the night, and he would not be able to see much. So what? His life was darkness....  
  
Then what was that light in the distance?  
  
Silently as stealth, he moved towards the clearing that had been where he left the recording device. He stopped a short distance away, stunned, as he suddenly sensed those dark chambers of his heart flare to life, and tears sting his eyes.  
  
*Is it possible for a ghost to cause such a reaction?*  
  
The thought was unbidden, but true, especially with a shadowy essence of the person he loved beyond all reason was huddled on the ground, crying!  
  
His heart gave a sharp lurch, for surely it had to be an apparition. Cassie was eons away, safe on the Megaship! Why would she be here, alone?  
  
Suddenly the apparition stilled, stopped shaking, and lifted "her" head. Her tears glittered brightly on her face from the flashlight as she stood up quickly and looked about her. "Who's there?" she asked in a quivering tone that tried, unsuccessfully, to be brave.  
  
It came as a sudden shock to him as he clearly sensed how upset she was. This was no apparition, it was the real thing!  
  
"Who's there? Phantom?" she demanded. "I can sense you there..."  
  
He could not let that slide. He was in invisible mode, and in the shadows, but he could not allow her to be frightened so.  
  
"Cassie...Cassie, do not be afraid. I am here," he said softly, letting the sheilding fall away so she saw him.  
  
"Ph-phantom?" she asked, incredulous. "What...what are you doing here? Why did you return?"  
  
"I could ask the same of you," he said softly, allowing amusement to enter his tone as to not frighten her.  
  
"Did you....forget something?" she asked, holding up the device. The sudden misery returned to her face, and it stabbed into his chest darker than the blackest shadow of pain.  
  
"Why do you cry, Cassie?" he asked softly, unable to bear her anguish.  
  
"Don't you know?" she asked, and she sounded bitter, making him feel even worse. She held up the device and let it play the third message over again. "I love you so much, Cassie....why can't you love me like I love you?"  
  
She saw him stiffen as he realized what he had done, and almost felt his horrified comprehension.  
  
"I...I never meant to have you hear that...." he whispered, too miserable to say anything else. What she had to be thinking of him now....  
  
"Why?" she almost demanded. "Is it true, what you said?"  
  
Behind his helmet, he closed his eyes, feeling her intense pain....and hurt? Something else he dared not identify? "Yes," he whispered. "More than you could ever, ever comprehend."  
  
Sudden anger blazed forth from her before she could stop it. "More than I could comprehend? Phantom, did you have any idea...*any* at *all*....that I might feel the same way?"  
  
His head snapped up at that. *She felt the same way....* his uncomprehending mind repeated, stunned.  
  
"Cassie?" he asked, unable to push aside a sudden flare of hope, however small.  
  
"Why did you return?" she whispered miserably.  
  
"I...I was compelled to..." he stumbled, turning away for a moment and not sure why he was telling her this. "I...do not know why...."  
  
"So was I," she murmured, wiping at her face. "I left in the middle of the night, and came here for reasons I cannot explain...and I heard this. Phantom....please be truthful to me."  
  
He whirled to face her. "I have never been untruthful to you."  
  
"Then why didn't you tell me how you felt? I love you! I've been miserable all these months because I felt I was loving nothing more than...well, a ghost ranger. One who could not possibly feel for me what I felt for him, he who stole my heart and soul, the one I will love until the day I die. Who *are* you?"  
  
He was stunned by her declaring words, and it took him a moment to comprehend what she said. "I...I thought you could not love...someone like me," he murmured. "I am from the shadows, Cassie...I do not deserve you."  
  
Her eyes flashed again, but also filled with pain. "Who are you to decide that?" she whispered, her tone soft now, and her lips trembling. Unbidden, he could not stop himself from reaching out to touch her face gently. "Please....Phantom....if you truly care for me...let me see the face behind the mask."  
  
Her heartfelt plea was more than he could stand, and he felt his armor melt away. His hand suddenly scorched at the touch of her soft skin against his palm, and she suddenly found herself staring up into dazzling green eyes, of the most unsual hue of green she had ever seen...a shade of green that had no name, just like the character in front of her. Framing those eyes was wavy dark hair as black as her own, and the handsomest face she had ever seen....but those eyes were more miserable than she had ever before encountered on a person in her life.  
  
And also glowing out of them was the strongest waves of love she had ever encountered. The deep, all-encompassing kind, the kind that made her heart- -yes, her *heart*, absent for so long--flare in response, and her heart and own love was in her eyes, she knew.  
  
Tenatively, afraid he'd disappear, she reached up, her skin burning as she touched his face, assuring herself he was real. "Who are you?" she whispered. "Why do you affect me so?"  
  
"Must you have my name?" he whispered. "If I give it to you, I will be lost to you forever...and I do not deserve you. I do not deserve anyone."  
  
"Why?" she asked, her eyes imploring him.  
  
"Because of who I am, where I am from. I do not deserve your love, Cassie. Your love is deserved by those who have walked in the light all their life...not by someone whose life has been in the shadows, always in the shadows, like me." His voice broke upon this confession, but it was true. It had to be. He had never felt differently.  
  
She knew there was much more to his anguished words than was apparent. "Who has done this to you, to give you such a twisted notion of yourself?" she had to say. "You are not below me, Phantom. You fight for justice, like me. You fight on the side of good."  
  
"That changes little," he whispered, knowing what he was about to tell her would drive her away. "It is my past that will forever haunt me, Cassie. Look at me carefully. Do you see any resemblence to anybody you know...who inspires fear?"  
  
A puzzled look came onto her face as she studied his handsome features, the chisled nose, the firm jaw, the black hair. She was not sure what he meant....until unbidden, an image of Divatox came to mind.  
  
He had to be telepathic to tell her something like this! "Divatox...?" she repeated what she heard him mentally crying out. "She is your...mother?"  
  
"Yes!" he choked miserably, removing his hand from her face and tears of anguish filling his eyes. "That demon of a woman spawned me! I am from the same bed of filth she wallows in--now do you understand why I do not deserve you? You are light, I am shadow. In fact, that is my given name from that woman--Shadow! I have no other I deserve to be called!"  
  
She was shocked, all right, but not for reasons he'd expect. He thought she would turn away from him just because he came from a different background? But he was good, and that was what mattered. It did not bother her, and she had to make him see this.  
  
"Shadow!" she caught his hands before he could fully get away from her, and he instantly froze at her touch. She pulled him back around to face her-- and saw the tears of complete anguish streaming down his face. Gods, he had been *that* certian she would flatly reject him upon hearing his story?  
  
She gripped the sleeves of his black tunic, determined to get through to him somehow. She would not let him leave like this. Strangely, he stopped struggling when she pulled him as close to her as she dared--and turned her face upwards, pressing her lips to his.  
  
He stilled completely, as if frozen in shock. For a moment, neither moved-- until, with an unyeilding, desperate hunger born of pain and love, he responded, slowly sliding his arms around her and crushing her slight body to his as his lips started to yeild to hers, covering her mouth with his in a searing wave of fire that ran the course of his body in the blink of an eye.  
  
His heart began to race a million beats a minute. The first searing touch of her lips had erased his thoughts of his unworthiness as lava-rich sensations overwhelmed him to feel her exotic, soft mouth benath his. His firmly chisled lips urged hers apart, desperately seeking what had been denied him so long. Her own tongue sought entry into his mouth, and he surrendured completely to his whirling, frantic emotions.  
  
Blood pounded in her ears, but at last she knew she had reached him. Truly reached him. Her lungs were bursting with heat and the need for air, but she did not want to break off the searing sensations of his mouth melded to hers.  
  
Eventually, though, she had to, gasping for air as she laid her head on his shoulder, and she felt his trembling arms relax their grip, as he clung to something more precious to him than even the ruby that sustained his life. He could not live without his life, or the light she cast into his heart, no longer. He was hers, and whatever she wished, he would do. If she told him to go jump off a bridge, he would do it. His feelings, his unworthiness, were not the issue...if she felt that way.  
  
She suddenly lifted her head, and he stared into her tear-filled eyes. "Now do you understand?" she pleaded softly. "I love *you*, Shadow, *you*. I don't care where you came from, who your mother is. You are *you*, Shadow, and that is what I love."  
  
"Before I became a ranger, I was a space pirate alongside her, until I understood what I was doing was wrong," he said softly, stroking her damp face. "Is that the kind of person you want to love, Cassie?"  
  
"Do you consider yourself as having an evil soul?"  
  
"No, but I have always walked the shadows."  
  
"But you are not evil, Shadow. You are truly good, and I can see the light that emanates from you, no matter where you came from. That is what matters, Shadow. What's in *here*," she whispered as she laid a hand on his chest, over where his heart lay. "Will you trust me?"  
  
Still stunned slightly, he stared into his eyes, hardly daring to believe this was happening to him, that she was accepting him for who he was, who he had been. But looking into her eyes...he allowed it to reassure him, to give him hope that his life need not be empty of light after all.  
  
"Yes," he whispered finally. "I...trust you, Cassie. I do." He leaned down and kissed her suddenly, as if sealing something between them. "And I never want to leave your side again."  
  
"You don't have to, if you don't want to," she said. "There is just one thing."  
  
"What is that?"  
  
"Is Shadow your only name?"  
  
For the first time in years, he smiled a real smile. "I was given two names, but it was a tradition in my mother's adopted family to only use one. She wished on me that abominable handle of Shadow....my other name is Tar'yn. I had almost forgotten it until now, since I never used it."  
  
"Shadow is a name for a person who bumps around in the dark," she said with a grin. "Do you wish to be called that--or Tar'yn?"  
  
He held onto her tightly. "As long as I am with you, you are the light of my life, my love," he confessed. "And as such, I need not walk in shadow. If I can get used to it, I'd much prefer to be called Tar'yn."  
  
"Then Tar'yn it shall be," she laughed musically, endearing him to her even more. He kissed her once more, the laughter stilling and the shadows fading completely as the sun came up over the horizon, filling the entire clearing with light to shine brightly on the two lost, lonely souls that had finally found each other to light the other's way. 


	2. Shadows Swept Away

Disclaimer: Buena Vista and Power Rangers are intertwined, although Saban created it. Just like while they created the Phantom Ranger, I came up with the idea of Shadow/Tar'yn. lol Story two in this trilogy, after "The Shadow and the Light".  
  
Shadows Swept Away By ZeoViolet Teaser: Sequal to "The Shadow and The Light." The Phantom Ranger discovers forgiveness isn't as easy as it seems.  
  
He came awake suddenly, awareness jerking through him as sharply as it almost always did. And, as usual, it was a few minutes before his alarm was due to start howling.  
  
He only started a moment at the feel of another warm body pressing against his own. The memory of last night came flooding back, and he smiled.  
  
*Cassie.*  
  
Cassie, the one soothing balm in his life, his light and his guide out of the world that had been his own shadowed realm for so long.  
  
Last night, despite the constant danger in their lives, she had managed to slip away from her duties and her life for awhile, and come to his. Both had relished the complete feeling of being whole while they could, and it was a foreboding thought that soon, they would have to return to the dangerous universe that awaited them.  
  
He stifled a sigh as he ran his fingers through her midnight hair, hair that still managed to shine with the light she posessed, for all it's darkness. Neither of them really liked having to see each other on a basis like they had been doing, but keeping up a more constant relationship was impossible, with all the danger in their lives. Cassie and her friends had just finished fighting off the Psycho Rangers, and he had almost been killed facing off with the woman he called his mother *yet again*.  
  
It had taken her friends awhile, he knew, to figure out that she had been meeting him on the sly whenever it was possible. It had also probably surprised them to learn she knew his real identity, but as far as he knew, she had never breathed a word of who he truly was.  
  
She could not, not yet, not when there was so much at stake. He was always reminded that having her in his life, on any level, placed her in the extremes of incredible danger. It was too dangerous, and it would possibly even be more so if word got back to his....that woman who spawned him, that he was alive, and a Power Ranger who was defeating her at every opprotunity.  
  
He almost jumped at the sudden shriek of the alarm, and beside him, Cassie squirmed uncomfortably.  
  
"Turn that thing off, please," she mumbled, almost incoherantly. From their bond, he could sense that, despite the calm tone, she was about to sit up and either start cursing or throw something at the computer console.  
  
In other words, typical Cassie.  
  
A faint chuckle escaped his lips as he clapped his hands--once. He looked back down at her to see her pretty face contort charmingly in sleepy surprise, and she blinked up at him.  
  
"That was all you had to do? Remind me to do that next time."  
  
"So you won't destory my computer?" he asked with a wry grin as she yawned and stretched, her nightgown riding high on her legs and rather temptingly low on her arms. With her all sleepy and cute like that, it was awfully hard *not* to stare, and even harder not to gather her in his arms and let the universe slide away again.  
  
"I wish," she mumbled, seeing the heated look in his green eyes and unconsciously returning it with one of her own. "If only we had the time. But I have to get back soon, lest the others wonder if something happened to us. At least they *know*, now, that I have been meeting you on the sly."  
  
"I wonder why they did not really protest your departures," he answered, watching her stumble out of his bed and reach for her clothes to change.  
  
"They understand," she said quietly. "Especially Ashley and Andros. And, I think, Zhane."  
  
"Zhane?" he repeated as he pulled on his own dark tunic. "Your Silver Ranger?"  
  
"Yeah," she mumbled, pulling on her shirt. "I recently discovered that he's besotted with Astronema, of all people. I think he envys my slipping out to meet you when I can."  
  
He frowned. "But Astronema's evil. How can he be....besotted for her?"  
  
"She feels...felt, the same way," Cassie corrected herself. "I think they tried a date once, but it ended in disaster. Then Zhane was gone while Astronema defected to our side, and now, with her cybernetic implants, she shows nothing but her hideously evil side. Both Zhane and Andros are devastated, as you might guess."  
  
She was surprised to see envy in *Tar'yn's* glance, and his smile was a bit sickly. "At least....she has it in her to turn to the side of light," he whispered.  
  
Cassie's glance became a mixture of worry and sympathy. "I hope," she began, "I hope you haven't not considered the idea that maybe...just maybe, what Andros managed to do with Karone, you could somehow do with your mother."  
  
"It's impossible," he said shortly, and she blinked at his bitter tone. "With somone as evil as *her*....it's just not possible. She'd die before she saw my way of thinking."  
  
Cassie's heart melted at the torture in his deep green gaze. She sighed as she enfolded him within her embrace, and she felt him tremble slightly. "You'll never forgive her, will you?" she dared to ask. "Is it within your power to forgive her...love her, despite who she is?"  
  
"She's Divatox, I doubt she can really feel love," he said bitterly, as a hard lump came into his throat. "She is my mother, but do I even love her? Sometimes....it's hard to tell. Except for you, Cassie, I don't know who I am. Don't you know....don't you know you are my main reason for living?"  
  
She suddenly turned his head so she could kiss him, stopping the flow of words before his bitterness turned to his buried anger at his own mother. Desperately, he leaned into it for a moment as her lips intoxicated his senses...but he felt compelled to continue.  
  
"You are everything to me, Cassie," he stumbled, breaking contact and gasping breathlessly. "I don't know where Divatox even came from. She was adopted into her family. I don't know who her people were....I don't even know who my father is. I only know he's Eltaran. You are the first person I could love...and that I could really trust."  
  
"You are not Shadow, remember that!" she reminded him with a soft smile, even as her heart ached for him. "You are Tar'yn, the Phantom Ranger, and despite the shadows of your past, you have the brightest soul I know. I love you, and that is what matters to me...not who you might have assoicated with in the past."  
  
"How do I ever deserve somebody like you?" he asked softly, as he held her to him, feeling the thumping of her heart against his own chest, beating in time with his own. "I thank the heavens every day for sending you into my life, Cassie."  
  
"Are you reading my mind?" she asked with a smile. "I was just thinking the same about you." Something flitted across her features, and she pulled back to look up at him.  
  
"But, after so many years, Andros managed to pull Astronema to the good side, perhaps you should not give up complete hope," she said softly. "I have learned that miracles can happen, after all."  
  
"Perhaps," he said softly. "But Cassie, I hate to say this....I don't know if I can forgive her. Too much has happened between us."  
  
"She's you're mother," Cassie admonished quietly. "Like it or not, she did give you life. And she did raise you, and I don't think it was completely out of a sense of duty. Just...at least search your heart for the matter....please?"  
  
He sighed. Stubborn Cassie. "All right. I'll try."  
  
"Promise?"  
  
"I promise."  
  
****  
  
After Cassie had gone, he sighed, feeling the renewed pain of not having her sweet soul at his side. Their life was filled with uncertainties, and he knew that, each and every time they parted, it could be the last. But until this portion of the universe was free of danger, he could never reveal himself.  
  
He bit his lip as he opened his bedside drawer and drew out one of the very few things in his possession that could possibly show his blood ties with that woman called Divatox.  
  
It was a photograph of them both, one of the few times she had ever truly smiled at him, and taken at one of the rare times he had ever had an inkling of *any* deeper emotions she posessed outside of the shell of evil greed.  
  
At least with the covering of the Phantom Ranger, nobody ever questioned his strong resemblence to this evil space pirate.  
  
*How could I ever forgive her for what she has done to me? Do I--have I ever loved her at all? She gave me life....am I so hardened I feel absolutely nothing for her?*  
  
His thoughts did not take into account the sudden lump in his throat, or the longing he felt every time he looked at that picture. He only identified the feeling as a need buried so deeply within his heart, he doubted he could ever find the source, or a way to quench it.  
  
*After all I've fought on the side of light, am I truly that cold towards my own flesh and blood?*  
  
He shuddered and put the photo away before he could consider it any more. He just couldn't.  
  
****  
  
Was this the end?  
  
Was this how he was fated to die--at the hand of King Mondo and company?  
  
He groaned in pain as he, along with the Blue Centurion, were flung this way and that, being beaten mercilessly by cogs. Nearby, he heard King Mondo order their destruction, followed by his mechanically evil laugh.  
  
When sudden images of his past life began to float before his eyes, he suddenly felt a feeling of dread hit the pit of his stomach.  
  
*If my life is flashing before my eyes, then it must truly be the end. Oh, Cassie!*  
  
Even as he fought, images flooded him, his mother Divatox ranting and yelling at him, urging him to be more brutal in his early days, calling him an accidental pregancy, and her final, stinging words to his back as he turned from her to join the side of light.  
  
Followed by images of the lonely melennia that followed, and how he had never really seen the light until he had met Cassie...and how he had almost denied himself the chance to finally love, and be loved, at last.  
  
*Cassie, my love, I am sorry this had to happen, I had to die on you. Please, forgive me.*  
  
For the Phantom Ranger had never before been so certain his life was about to end, until that moment.  
  
Then, weakly, he looked up to see a blinding flash fill the sky, hurling straight towards them.  
  
****  
  
Divatox nearly shrieked as the wave of searing heat flashed in her direction. She knew somehow that the blindingly white wave meant her doom, for the goodness radiating from it was almost sickening.  
  
She turned and ran.  
  
pBut it was too fast for her. She shrieked as the wave overwhelmed her, and she was certain her soul was going to depart her body any moment.  
  
This was not to be. In one instant, in that one fiery burst of light, she felt herself change. All the built-up evil, fed to her since her babyhood days, melted away and her heart was purified by that searing heat. Of course, she would remember everything, but a new psyche took over, a psyche she had been born with, the one that had been so suppressed throuhout her life she had lost almost all awareness of it's existence, except for her rare bursts of compassion.  
  
The new Divatox that came to the fore was one that radiated light, and whose heart was no longer clouded by the shadows of evil.  
  
The person she should have been all along.  
  
In that one burst of blinding light  
  
, that was all it took. Her clothes, identifying her as her evil persona. also changed to a white gown, and her hair tumbled loose, completeing the transformation. The wave passed through her, leaving the new, purified Divatox kneeling on the ground in stunned confusion...and a realization that she was not dead.  
  
"I'm...alive!" She got up, seeing how she was wearing pure white, and looked around her. Strangely, all the little piles of dust that had once been her army-- the sight did not bother her as she laughed aloud in joy.  
  
"Alive!" Her delighted cry echoed in the wind of this particular island on Aquitar, and she did not care that the Aquitian Rangers were staring at her. Her soul was finally free to soar, as her evilness had never allowed her to do.  
  
Delphine instantly realized what had happened. The wave of goodness and light that had just swept them all must have seen something in Divatox to spare her life, only removing the built-up evil in her soul, that should never have been there in the first place. Somehow she sensed that if Divatox had been completely evil, she would never have survived.  
  
"Are you all right?" she demorphed and came over to the woman, who was standing there, shivering. Althought Divatox was smiling, sudden tears were on her face, and her lips trembled.  
  
"I...am okay," she whispered faintly. "I....I never thought it was possible that simple, pure light could feel so good. I was evil for so long, and...." her smile faded. "And I have done much more harm to you and everyone I've met, more than I could ever repay in kindness."  
  
"I don't think you would have been spared if, at the very core of you, you weren't good to begin with," said Delphine carefully, then bowed in the gesture of Aquitians. "Welcome back to the side of light...Divatox. Or...is that your true name?"  
  
"It's the only one I really remember...I was adopted by my evil family, so I don't know where I come from. My other name...." Divatox thought. "I think it was....it was never used.....Serenity. And no wonder."  
  
Delphine's eyes narrowed, and she peered at Divatox suddenly. "You don't know who your bloodborn family is?"  
  
"I don't remember."  
  
Someone's face came to Delphine's mind, and she was tempted to brush it away. It was impossible. But this woman....Divatox had a face.....like a certain woman from Inquiris Delphine knew.  
  
"I think you've had quite a shock," said Delphine quietly. "Why don't you stay with us for awhile? At least until you can get your affairs in order and start to rebuild your life."  
  
"Why would you do this?" asked Divatox with trembling lips. "I have been so cruel to you in the past. Just because I've changed...does not completely erase what I've done. I...remember everything. I...don't really deserve to be treated kindly."  
  
"That is the way of the Dark Side, to be so cruel," said Delphine matter-of- factly. "It is much different on the side of light, where you belong. I hold no grudge against you. Now...will you come?"  
  
Delphine was too choked to say anything as she nodded, her heart pounding in her chest. she suddenly felt dizzy, overwhelmed by the emotional impact, and she was glad to be going.  
  
****  
  
So he wasn't dead. Phantom stumbled to his feet along with the Bule Centurion, and they looked around them in astonishment. Gods, there was nothing but dust piles...everywhere on the plains of the now-freed Eltare.  
  
Only one other trembling figure was in sight, and it was a very badly shaken Prince Sprocket. Out of all the evil that had been in the Machine Empire, it seemed only he was spared...probably because he was a child, constructed or no. He was still young enough to have a heart buried within all those gears that made him up.  
  
Although the boy had been purified, he was shaken by the fact his parents were no more, and he was completely alone.  
  
"I want my momma!" he wailed in fright and confusion as he started to cry. The Blue Centurion stumbled over to the boy as Phantom just stood there, shaken by a new thought.  
  
If one evil person had managed to survive the wave...could she have....?  
  
No, it was impossible. She had been too cruel, too evil....hadn't she been?  
  
He wasn't sure, and he was not sure he wanted to find out.  
  
Now he only hoped Cassie had survived Astronema's onslaught.  
  
"SSSPPPRROOOCCKKKEEETT!!!" came an echoing cry as two figures came running over the horizon. All three living occupants of the plain gawked in surprise as Prince Gasket and Princess Archarina stumbled towards them.  
  
They had also lived, having been purified and evil no longer.  
  
"G-gasket?" the trembling little prince gasped as his broher hurried towards him. "You're alive! I thought everybody was dead!"  
  
"Archarina and I survived....thank gods you did too!" the elder brother gasped as he reached his mechanical sibling and, kneeling, hugged him gratefully, no trace of sibling rivalry present. "Seems our folks didn't."  
  
"I want my momma!" wailed Sprocket again. "Why didn't they live, Gasket? Were they too evil? We don't even have an empire to fight over anymore. It's gone."  
  
"So what?" gasped Gasket. "The important thing is my own brother still lives. I heard that Zedd and Rita did, also, on Triforia. But they changed, too, like we did. It was Zordon's wave. But...no word on what happened on Earth."  
  
It made Phantom's heart flop in fear. If Cassie was dead, he was going to join her. It wasn't worth it to be left behind again, alone.  
  
And if Zordon had indeed died for such a cause, then the local Universe had been cleansed of evil. Perhaps...perhaps he could at last safely put aside the Phantom Ranger phenomenon, and live a normal life.  
  
He only stayed long enough to make sure that Gasket, Archarina, and Sprocket were safely on their way to Gasket's planet, which was intact. They had nothing more to fear of the Machine Empire or the likes of Zedd and Rita, which meant his journey could at last be over.  
  
If Cassie was alive. If not...  
  
****  
  
Thank gods she was. She looked sore, bruised, but from what he could tell from orbit, she was alive. And he had never felt relief so enormous.  
  
And there was no way he could get to her, not while she was in the middle of a media frenzy.  
  
The identity of Earth's Rangers had just been exposed to the public for all to see.  
  
He settled down for a wait, impatient, waiting to catch her while she was at least relatively alone. There had been as yet no word on Divatox's survival, and he was jumpy. At least he seemed to have no lingering reason...or want....to continue hiding behind the mask of the Phantom Ranger.  
  
****  
  
"Genetic scan complete," announced the computer sweetly as Delphine finished inputing all the information.  
  
"Understood," said Delphine as she looked over the information. Divatox sat there mutely, looking through her. It was obivious the poor woman had a lot on her mind...although Delphine did not know it was about the one person Divatox knew for certain she had blood ties to.  
  
"Divatox," said Dephine quietly, laying a hand on her arm. The woman jumped.  
  
"I am sorry if I startled you," whispered Delphine. "The scans are complete, and the results are back. They have identified which race you come from."  
  
Divatox blinked. "Then...where am I from?"  
  
"It seems..." Delphine murmured as she glanced at the readouts. "It seems you come from the world of Inquiris, Divatox."  
  
Divatox raised an eyebrow. "Inquiris?"  
  
"Haven't you ever felt your curiosity get the better of you...or the impluse to ask questions?" asked Delphine. "It is their genetic trademark. Your next step should be to try and find if you have any family left."  
  
"Family," snorted Divatox bitterly. "I don't deserve to find my family...they wouldn't accept me.....not even my son."  
  
"You're son?" Delphine raised an eyebrow. "You have a son?"  
  
"'Had' is a better term," said Divatox bitterly. "I don't know if he lived. It..." Everything seemed to hit Divatox all at once. "Oh, gods..." she turned from Delphine, tears streaming down her face. "It...it was so long ago....but I miss him still!"  
  
She did not object when Delphine gently slid her arms around her. "What happened?" the White Ranger asked softly.  
  
"It...it was eons ago," stumbled Divatox. "My son....I had gotten pregnant accidentally, by an Eltaran drifter. I had him anyway, taught him to follow in my footsteps for the next century. I had always been evil, it was all I had ever known, so I taught him what I knew. But he saw the light...and I didn't. We....we parted with bitter words as he left to join those I called the enemy...and I never heard from him again." She sobbed into Delphine's shoulder. "I...I never told him how much I loved him, how much he meant to me...I didn't know how. I...I knew that I did....but I did not know how to tell him. Now...I'll never get the chance."  
  
"Cross that bridge when you come to it," said Delphine softly. "He may be alive yet. What's his name?"  
  
"Shadow," she whispered. "But even if he is alive....he won't forgive me, I just know it. We haven't spoken in eons...literally." She could not stop trembling. "I am such a fool, Delphine. I don't deserve all this...all you've done for me."  
  
Her tears, once unleashed, did not stop easily. Delphine held her for a long time as feelings that had been buried for so long overwhelmed her, rocking her with wave after wave of pain, and memories of her son took control of her mind. It was a long time before she regained control of herself.  
  
****  
  
At last, Cassie was alone. Well, still with her group, but otherwise alone. He felt safe in approaching them as they hung out on the fringes of Angel Grove, so they could at last be alone.  
  
Andros was busy talking to Karone, and not paying much attention to anything else at the moment. Ashely felt she could not blame him, but she felt akin to what Cassie was feeling...she knew that the latter was worried about Phantom, and whether he had survived.  
  
"You okay?" asked Ashley, slipping an arm around her comfortingly. "I know you're worried..."  
  
"I am just scared..." Cassie whispered. "The Machine Empire was pretty powerful, you know...what if he was..."  
  
"What's that?" interrupted Ashley, as nearby, a swirl of red came into view. Cassie blinked in surprise as the Phantom Ranger materialized out of the red flash. He turned and looked at her for a moment, then she was shocked to hear him quietly cross his wrists and announce, "Power Down."  
  
*Everyone* stared in surprise at the boy that stood in the Phantom Ranger's place, at last seeing the person behind the mask, a handsome boy with dark hair, green eyes, and a face that seemed somehow familiar, despite the fact they had never seen him unmorphed before.  
  
Cassie's mouth opened slightly, and then shut as his unique green gaze caught hers, and he smiled faintly, making her understand that his secret need no longer be kept.  
  
"Tar'yn!" she cried joyfully, her legs suddenly moving as she ran towards him, laughing happily as he caught her in his arms and swung her around once before pulling her towards him and kissing her, with complete disregard to her gaping friends. He reveled in her closeness, and felt peace as her very presence soothed the turbulence in his soul.  
  
"Oh, they're *definetly* lovers," Andros heard TJ mutter with a grin. "Whoever he is, anyway. I guess he no longer needs to keep it a secret."  
  
"I guess not," Andros chuckled, then turned to see Karone go pale. He recalled the possible reason why...the last time she had seen the Phantom Ranger, she had tried to destroy him.  
  
"Guys," said Cassie as she pulled the shy boy foward. "I guess he has decided to relinquish his anonymity....this is Tar'yn, the Phantom Ranger."  
  
Andros smiled a greeting. "Welcome back," he said evenly. "Glad you came through the mess in one piece."  
  
Tar'yn smiled. "So am I," he said as he looked down at Cassie, hugging her to him, his eyes soft. "I came back because of her."  
  
"You're welcome here anytime," said Andros easily. "Although we are leaving in a couple of days for KO-35. I have to help my people resettle on our colony."  
  
Something flickered across Tar'yn's face, and he looked helplessly at Cassie. She read his worried glance, and mentally sent the words, *They might as well know. I doubt if they will hold it against you, they accepted Karone.*  
  
For the first time, Tar'yn noted the blonde girl hanging shyly behind Zhane, and recognized her as the same villanness who had tried to kill him the last time they had met. Her eyes were no longer cold with hatred, and he understood she had also survived the purge. If they could accept her as one of them, then perhaps....  
  
"There is something he must tell you," Cassie started. "Tar'yn is the son of someone who used to be our enemy for a long time....she was...."  
  
"Divatox!" whispered Karone, then she blushed a furious red. "I--I am sorry, Tar'yn." Her hazel eyes lowered in acute embarrassment.  
  
"It is all right, Ast--Karone," he said. "I do not doubt you know, because you knew my mother well..."  
  
"I knew who she was," whispered Karone. "I had also heard through the grapevine that she had a son who defected to the side of good and disappeared....though she herself never spoke of you. But you look too much like her for there to be any doubt."  
  
Tar'yn nodded slowly. "Does--does this change your opinion of me?" he had to ask. They had been his friends when he had been an unknown ranger, it might change upon learning of his blood ties.  
  
Andros blinked. "Why, no," he said. "Why would you think that?"  
  
Everyone nodded in agreement with the Red Ranger's simple statement.  
  
"You were good, right?" asked practical Carlos. Tar'yn nodded. "Then that's what matters."  
  
Suddenly, Tar'yn realized how foolish he had been to underestimate the mercy and compassion of people such as these. He really *had* been out of touch with the real universe for too long.  
  
****  
  
Divatox had to smile at the irony. It was so ironic it was sickening. Her only living relative--so far--was a twin, and that twin had been her worst enemy.  
  
But looking at the picture of Dmitria, and looking into a mirror, it was impossible to deny the obvious truth. She was Dmitria's long-lost twin sister, according to Inquiris's genetic records. If Dmitria was still alive, she would naturally be informed of this discovery by Inquiris's government.  
  
*As if she would accept the mythical *evil twin* saga," she mused silently. If Dmitria voluntarily came looking for her, she would accept it. If she was not wanted, she would not force herself onto her relatives. She would find a way to live her own life. They did not deserve to be burdened with someone like she had been, just for the sake of family.  
  
*But what of my son?* she had made inquiries, and had found nothing. When he had disappeared, he had literally disappeared. He could have been dead for eons, and she had no idea what had happened to him.  
  
*I wish we could meet once more, at least,* she thought desperately, as tears filled her eyes yet again. *My son, I never, ever thought to say those three simple words...I love you. Please,* she begged to any diety that might be listening, *Let me see him one more time...even if it's just for a few minutes. I must say I am sorry...and tell him how much I love him.*  
  
****  
  
"No!" exploded Tar'yn. "Cassie, I cannot! Too much time has passed, she has done the unforgiveable. I cannot face her....I don't even think I love her. Much less forgive her."  
  
"We accepted *you*, didn't we?" Cassie shot at him. "I did not care that she was your mother. She was seen alive on Aquitar, Tar'yn, and she has been purged. She's not evil any longer."  
  
His shocked, hurt look tore at her heart, and she regretted her harsh words instantly.  
  
"I'm sorry," she murmured ferverently, hugging him hard. "I had no right to throw that in your face. Just give her a chance, Tar'yn....please?"  
  
"I will consider it," he sighed, closing his eyes and trying to drive away the sting of long-buried tears and pain. "Cassie...I cannot promise anything else. I just cannot, I am sorry."  
  
"I understand," she whispered, her lips pressing gently against his forehead. "It is all I can ask."  
  
"And it is all I can give on that subject," he answered. "Whatever else I can give belongs soely to you, Cassie. You are my world....possibly more than she could ever be."  
  
****  
  
Damn,but why did it hurt so much to even consider trying to approach...*her*, again? Every time the thought crossed his mind, all he could see was her belittling him, or flinging her hatred-filled words at his back the last time he had seen her.  
  
It made him feel sick.  
  
Again, Tar'yn drew out the photo he had often considered destroying, but never had. It was only then, seeing her smile on of her rare, unhinged smiles, did any doubt tug at him, and that bitter aching longing fill him, an emotion that made him consider that perhaps, maybe he *should* see her again, at least for a few minutes....he could always leave if it proved too much.  
  
*Why can't I decide?*  
  
Cassie, bless her, had stopped prodding him after that first little episode, leaving him alone to think, to try to bring himself to reveal his identity to the woman he had loathed throughout the eons for her cruelty....and she had, not knowing it was him, tried to kill him numerous times....he could not deny he held it against her.  
  
*They accepted both you and Karone,* his tired mind reminded himself. *You must at least try.*  
  
His hand had crumpled the photo as he gritted his teeth, but he forced himself to open his eyes and smooth out the picture again, and staring at the almost-innocent smile on Divatox's face, his resolve melted, and he was overcome suddenly by a wave of emotion he had fought to deny for eons as two lone tears stole down his face and anguish filled his senses.  
  
*You are right, Cassie. I will try.*  
  
****  
  
She had to get out. Out into the open. Staying underwater all day and night was getting to her, and she needed some air.  
  
She found herself wandering the windswept plains of one of Aquitar's small landmasses. The wind whistled in her ears and blew her hair every-which- way.  
  
*I truly am alone.*  
  
Strangely, she felt lonlier here than down in Aquitar's underwater structure. She might be free, but she was alone.  
  
Her final words to her son echoed omniously in her head, and it made her heart lurch. *You will never love, and you will die of lonliness and dispair.*  
  
*Little did I know I was pronouncing my own sentence!* Her mind cried. "Oh, Shadow, my son, I am so sorry!" she wailed aloud, as her tears started again. Here, there as nobody to overhear her cries, as only the wind carried the sound of her sobs across an empty land.  
  
****  
  
Almost empty. Tar'yn materialized in the hills next to the plains where he had tracked his mother's readings. This was his first unmorphed glimpse of her in eons, and the sight of her was different indeed.  
  
It was unexpected to see her dressed entirely in white, her hair loose. She had never dressed that way before, that he could recall. She was no longer heniously dressed. She looked...beautiful, like somebody he could never have dared to expect to see.  
  
Upon seeing her, he had expected to feel nothing but cold hatred. But she was kneeling on the ground, crying, and his heart gave the sharpest lurch he had felt in ages. That feeling, of pain and *love*--for he could now identify it--, welled in him with such force his knees nearly buckled.  
  
"Shadow, my son, I am so sorry!" he heard her sob softly. "If only I could tell you how much I love you...."  
  
He gritted his teeth against the sudden wave of pain that shot into his stomach with an almost deadly force. The shadows of his past overwhelmed him once more, and the evil sneer that he had often seen in her eyes was nothing like what he saw in this woman's compassionate dark gaze.  
  
He felt suddenly dizzy, and he dimly remembered to reach for his teleporter button before his tears started to fall.  
  
Cassie, who was in his ship and had come with him, looked up to see Tar'yn completely white-faced and shaking so badly she thought he was going to faint. But the tears streaking his face told her it was another matter, and she let him clasp her fiercely to his heart, feel him shuddering with heaving, silent sobs of a pain he could no longer fight to suppress, an old ghost she was determined would haunt him for the last time.  
  
For a long time, all he could do was cry. The pain was so overwhelming, he dimly wondered if he would feel anything else again as he cried for what he had loved and lost, and for what might have been.  
  
"I saw her," he choked when the intensity of his sobs slowed slightly. "I saw her there...she's not evil. I can't hate her, Cassie, I know that now. I just can't."  
  
"Then don't," she murmured, touching his wet face with her fingertips as her dark eyes locked with his green ones. "You must talk to her, Tar'yn. Clear up all the bitterness and distrust....try and start again. You can do it...I know you can."  
  
He nodded shakily. "I love you, Cassie," he whispered, hugging her closer. "Thank you...for being there for me. Thank you for understanding when I feared none would."  
  
"That is a part of love, sticking together and having forgiveness and compassion," she murmured as he kissed her forehead gently. "I know you would do the same for me if our positions were reversed."  
  
His lips quivered as he nodded, knowing suddenly that his former shadows had not returned to haunt him in the form of his mother....the glow in his heart had instead brightened to give him the strength he needed to bring her back from the world of shadows that had once held them both captive.  
  
And Cassie....Cassie was that glow, and he knew this for certain.  
  
****  
  
For some reason, he felt compelled to morph before he teleported back down, and he was glad Cassie's hand was resting posessively on his elbow when they shimmered into existence on the planet below.  
  
Divatox had thought she had exhausted all her tears as she stood up to leave. She felt numb, and wondered if she would feel anything again.  
  
"She *has* changed, in ways I would never have expected," whispered Cassie from where she and Tar'yn had ducked behind a boulder. "Go to her, Tar'yn. I think, subconsciously, she is waiting for you."  
  
Divatox suddenly got the sense she was not alone, and she turned abruptly, on guard.  
  
She was much astonished to see the Phantom Ranger, of all people, standing there, arms folded and with a stiff posture...as if he was trying to control something...or himself.  
  
"Why...are you here?" she whispered, and felt a tingle of fear. "Have you...come to seek revenge? If so, kill me now...I am alone."  
  
"I...have not come to kill you," she heard him say softly. "It is time some truths were let to light, Divatox, about my past and yours."  
  
Her brow furrowed. "What....do you mean?" she asked, still fearful.  
  
To her surprise, he crossed his wrists and gave a quiet command to power down.  
  
A shimmering wave of red, and suddenly, there was a boy standing before her, a young man straight from both her dreams and her nightmares, with her black hair and her face etched into his features, and a series of turbulent emotions in his too-familiar eyes.  
  
"Oh...." was all she could say as she felt as if she had been physically punched. "Gods....Shadow?"  
  
Just a faint nod.  
  
The horror of it all hit her then. Her son! He was alive....but the Phantom Ranger! Without knowing it....she had tried to kill him more times than she could count! He had been under her nose all this time....why approach her now?  
  
He could see the horrified comprehension in her eyes, to suddenly realize that her enemy had been her own son all along.  
  
"Tar'yn....?" it was a plea, in a strained voice that begged him for compassion, though she doubted if he had it, until her eyes met his again when, of his own violation, he stepped closer.  
  
Seldom had she used his real name, only in the very few times she had been tender with him in the past had she succumbed to using it. He knew how scared she must be, seeing him now and figuring that he hated her with all his heart.  
  
Which was untrue.  
  
When he reached out and touched her face gently, and she saw the forgiveness in his eyes, did she dare to have any hope. A strangled sob escaped her lips, and she did not stop him from pulling her to his hard frame.  
  
She could feel him shuddering as his arms closed about her, symbolically sealing something she had thought forever lost between them.  
  
"My son," She cried quietly. "Can you forgive me at all for what I have done?"  
  
"Yes," she heard him breathe. "Oh, Mother, I am...glad you survived."  
  
"Then you don't hate me for what I was?" she stammered. "I was so cruel, I was no mother to you..."  
  
"I don't....I thought I did..." he admitted. "But seeing you as you are now...I knew I never could."  
  
"But you....are the Phantom Ranger...just to think how many times I nearly killed you...."  
  
"Would you have cared if you had known it was me?"  
  
He heard her sharp, inhaled gasp. "Shadow, that's not a fair question. It might not have seemed like it, but I love you, I always did. I just...just didn't know how to show it. I am so, so sorry."  
  
"I forgive you," he said quietly, looking into her dark eyes. "I know you could not have been completely evil, not when I heard the purge spared your life. Few got a second chance, mother, and I hope that this time...we can start over and do it right."  
  
Her eyes widened. "Then...you want this? You will have me with you...and be seen with me?"  
  
"I think...." he smiled, and she saw her own face in his again. "I think there is nothing I'd like more."  
  
Cassie chose that exact moment to speak up. "It's a Kodak moment."  
  
Divatox blinked in surprise, and looked in astonishment from her son to the Pink Ranger. It only took her a moment to realize the meaning of their shared, tender looks.  
  
"You...and her...ah?" She said to her son, jerking her head in Cassie's direction. Tar'yn nodded, and she relaxed slightly.  
  
"Then I see you are in good hands."  
  
"Let's go back to Earth," suggested Tar'yn. "I have been staying with the Rangers there."  
  
"After that, I want to go to inquiris," said Divatox. "You see, son, I have discovered who my family was there...."  
  
Aquitar's main sun shone brightly overhead as the three occupants of the plain shimmered out of existence, leaving nothing but the windwept land without a shadow in sight, for the shadows had been swept away. 


	3. Shadow's Strength

Disclaimer: Buena Vista. PR. Whatever. This is the final story in this trilogy. When I wrote it three years ago I had no real intention of writing anything else, but I've heard from some over the years since to continue it. If you really want me to, then drop me a line.  
  
Oh, yeah, this story is not set within my "From The Stars" series, but does mention Sharie Triesta here as a matter of courtesy. Here, she's simply Trey's brother and co-ruler of Triforia. No Dryseran war-grew up on earth thingy. So relax, and enjoy.  
  
Shadow's Strength By ZeoViolet Teaser: Another family reunion, and Tar'yn and Divatox search for Tar'yn's father.  
  
"I honestly cannot believe this," whispered Divatox, as she stared at the e- mail message displayed on DECA's console. "I can't believe she actually wants to see me, in person."  
  
Tar'yn leaned over his mother's shoulder, reading the message for himself. "I doubt if Dmitria would lie to you," he assured her. "She is a most honest woman, with a heart the size of this galaxy. If she says she wants to come face-to-face with you, she means it."  
  
Pain twisted in Divatox's heart. "My own twin sister," she whispered softly, her eyes burning with a long-forgotten emotion. "I still find it hard to believe--Dmitiria was my worst enemy of all! She's my twin--I never considerd that we might look alike--and she wears that veil on her face, too. How could I have known she resembles me so--only because Delphine told me so."  
  
"That's normal Inquiris wear," answered Cassie, who had delved into the past of Dmitria's planet once out of curiosity. "It's not compulsory or anything--just the fashion nowadays, as I understand it."  
  
"You could never get me into an outfit like that," answered Divatox, but she smiled over a sniffle. "Gauzy yellow robes aren't my style, and neither is a veil."  
  
"Do you wish to meet her?" asked Cassie. "I am sure she would enjoy meeting her long-lost twin on some place other than a battlefield. Ever since she found out she *had* a twin, she's been looking for you--though knowing her, I can bet she never expected it to be you."  
  
"Trust me, I was the least likely candidate on her mind," answered the former evil space pirate, a well-known frown on her face. "That I don't need to ask to get confirmed. It's kind of obvious, you know." She studied the e-mail. "She is interested in meeting me, and I guess I have little to lose by saying yes, don't I? I didn't think I had family at all-- what a wallop the last couple of weeks have been."  
  
"Then you will?" prodded Tar'yn. "I would not mind seeing her again, too-- it is time I got out more without hiding behind the facade of the Shadow Ranger. That part of my past I am laying to rest."  
  
"You don't want to be a ranger anymore?" asked Divatox, genuinely surprised. "After you and I, uh..." she swallowed hard, "departed, I figured that was the first thing you would do, just to spite me. In a way, I was right--you did become a ranger. You want to give that up?"  
  
"Correction," he realized how that had come out. "I don't want to be known as the Phantom Ranger anymore. I still will morph in case it is ever needed again. But I refuse to go back to that cold, lonely person I was, wandering the universe without a light to warm my heart or soul--Cassie took care of that." He slid over to a blushing Cassie and laid his arm around her.  
  
She only blanched for a moment, quite aware that his mother was watching them, but seeing as Divatox did not seem inclined to object, she sighed and leaned against Tar'yn without further thought.  
  
"You two do seem to be meant for each other," said Divatox sadly, seeing the warmth in Tar'yn's eyes and remembering another man with such vivid green eyes she had once known....and had long since lost. "Just don't make the same stupid mistakes I made in my life...please."  
  
"You are not stupid," Tar'yn was quick to say. "I still don't understand how you and Dmitiria were seperated and you fell into the hands of your evil adoptive parents."  
  
"They didn't tell me," answered Divatox dryly. "And I don't care to know."  
  
"Then we won't speak more about it. I am not sure I want to know, either."  
  
Divatox turned her weary gaze back to the message, her heart fluttering in her breast as she considered what it all could mean. "I will go on one condition," she said softly. "I don't want to go alone--things will be very akward between us as it is. I have tried to kill her more than once, you know. She should hate me eternally for it."  
  
To her surprise, it was Cassie who spoke up first. "I would not mind accompanying you and Tar'yn," she stated softly. "I know Dmitiria well, you know--that is, if you would not consider me an intrusion."  
  
"Oh, no," said Divatox, actually delighted with the prospect. "It might make things easier if we both had a familiar face with us--she doesn't know yours either, my son."  
  
"I will keep out of your way," Cassie promised. "Don't want to be an albatross around your necks."  
  
"A....what?" repeated Tar'yn, then smiled. "Strange words, but I think I know what you are saying. You would never be in the way, not as far as I am concerned."  
  
As if to emphasize this, he leaned over and kissed her quickly before returning to the details of the email with his mother, leaving Cassie aside to contemplate things.  
  
She was frankely amazed at the changes in both mother and son as they whizzed through the days, making up for lost time--and Tar'yn had been so certain he could never love nor forgive her ever again! Already they were very close, and she was truly happy to see the person she loved above all else reignite his relationship with the one person he had ever known he had blood ties to.  
  
And now they were going to have a formal reunion with Divatox's twin, Dmitria. Cassie smiled. No longer did Tar'yn walk the shadows of a world of pain and numbness, and no longer did Divatox wallow in the evil that she had been raised in. Perhaps, for the first time for both of them, the sun had risen over the horizon of thier lives, driving many of the shadows away for good.  
  
It was all Cassie could do not to frown as she considered the last big remaning question in the lives of this mother and son. She knew it was a question that disturbed both, and both would not mind being resolved one day.  
  
It was the question of Tar'yn's father--his identity and his wherabouts.  
  
****  
  
Inquiris was a light, airy world, a bubbling delicate paradise that was home to some of the most beautiful mysteries in the universe--the secret of their world's delicate, and yet amazingly stubborn, beauty was a mystery their scientists forever spent time trying to unlock,and the answer was always out of reach.  
  
Maybe this mystery of their world's light, bubbly beauty was part of their curious, questioning nature. In fact, Cassie would not be surprised if this was the reason the Inquiris's natives tongue was entirely derived of questions.  
  
She smiled to herself, wondering if either Tar'yn or Divatox had known that when she first came to Earth to be the Turbo Ranger's mentor, Dmitria could not even speak standard. She spoke with a translator that spit out the correct english words, but, as all inquiris speech patterns were, all were in the form of questions.  
  
It was not until shortly before Cassie had become the pink Turbo ranger that Dmitria had fully learned Standard--the wonders of Knowledge Infusion-- and it was not until shortly after that she had learned not to phrase every spoken word as questions or a riddle--it tended to drive humans a little batty after awhile. As hard as they tried, neither Tommy's team or TJ's had ever grown to appreciate the riddles and questions speech. Dmitria, sensing this despite the fact nobody said anything--not wanting to hurt her feelings--had willingly struggled to change her speech habits. It was much appreciated.  
  
When the three occupants of the teleporter beams fully materialized outside of the main research dome, Cassie was startled to find herself not having very secure footing. The gravity on Inquiris was much less than earth--no wonder Dmitria had preferred Zordon's tube to her normal humanoid form.  
  
Taking her mind off the more pressing matters for a moment, Cassie took time to admire the beauty around her--every thing, from the birds with huge, colorful feather plumes floating in the breeze, to the trees--she supposed they were trees, anyways--with trunks so delicate they looked like they could snap at any moment. They also came in a startling array of rainbow colors--year-round, most plants, even the leaves, were vivid hues of purple, pink, blue, red, gold, white--you name it, they had it. Some were even translucent, catching the sun's rays in a dazzling prism effect.  
  
As delicate as all this beautiful life around her seemed, from what Cassie had read, they were made of some of the tougher natural material in the universe, woven together in a decpetively delicate pattern that had shocked many an offworlder who had tried to pick some frail blossom or other--and couldn't.  
  
Briefly, Cassie wondered if the natives of Inquiris were as reslient as their plant and animal life.  
  
The natives of Inquiris were, by nature, also multiphasic beings--they could assume a fully solid humanoid shape, like any other person, or they could transform themselves into beings more easily adapted to floating around in the light gravity. Either form was acceptable anywhere, and Cassie supposed Divatox would be grateful for that--for she had no idea how to assume any shape but the humanoid shape she now was in.  
  
Cassie supposed that Tar'yn had no idea either, and perhaps the sight of the many curious, friendly natives flowing around them in their other form unnerved him a bit, for his hand gripped hers tightly.  
  
Cassie held her translator ready. Standard was not widley spoken here, as it was on many other technologically advanced worlds, and she prepared herself to find everything that came out of the translator to be nothing but qestions and riddles.  
  
Divatox wondered why she suddenly felt shy to have her face uncovered when a young man floated up to them, the look in his dark eyes making it obvious he had been expecting them.  
  
Cassie understood why her companions were suddenly unnerved. Their faces were bare. Almost all the Inquiris natives around them wore face veils-- some gauzy and see-through, some not, but it seemed standard wear, making Cassie wonder if she was the only one unbothered by it all.  
  
This young man's apparel was no different.  
  
He had blond hair and was swathed in blue robes--and a blue face veil that fitted over his nose and curved to just under his ears.  
  
"Ah--you are here then?" the words, without preamble, came out of Cassie's translator. "Mind if I bid you welcome to Inquris?"  
  
"Thank you," said Divatox, suddenly feeling a mild sense of Deja Vu and not knowing where it came from. "We are here to see Dmitria."  
  
"Follow me?" he politely gestured his way into the nearby domed building. "Is my name--Jaden-satisfying to you?"  
  
"Uh, yeah," said Tar'yn, suddenly feeling uncomfortable with all the questions. "That's fine, Jaden."  
  
"My form and speech bothers you?" he asked, knowing the answer. "It does this to offworlders, does it not?"  
  
As if he could read their minds, he did not wait for their answer before there was a flash of blue, and he was suddenly bouncing along in full, solid humanoid shape.  
  
"Thank you," said Cassie. "No offense intended--we're just not used to the question-based speech or the floating people because of gravity."  
  
"Would I be rude to take offense of offworlder's discomfort?" Jaden shook his head emphatically.  
  
"I think that means, 'no offense taken'," whispered Tar'yn. "Perhaps in a way, it will be nice to be around Dmitria for another reason--she can speak the way we are used to by now."  
  
"Do you consider Dmitria wise, like us?" Cassie's translator rendered. "And do you consider yourselves fortunate that this is so?"  
  
It was a lucky thing that Cassie had learned how to mentally translate Dmitria's strange speech when she first met her. *I think that means that we are lucky we were landed with someone as wise as Dmitria, no doubt.* She mused to herself.  
  
Finally, Jaden stopped at a chamber door. Without a word, he reached over and pressed a button on the side, so it slid open.  
  
"Will Dmitria grant entrance?" Said Cassie's translator.  
  
"Would I deny it to welcome visitors?" came the reply, and Cassie had to smile at the unusual greeting.  
  
She sensed Divatox suddenly blanch. "Do you want me to enter first?" Cassie thought to ask in a bare whisper.  
  
"Please," whispered Divatox. "I am suddenly....nervous."  
  
"I don't think that Dmitria will destroy you if you enter the room," whispered Cassie. "But I will go first."  
  
Divatox's glance was grateful. Without a word, Jaden bowed and departed, leaving the three lingering in the hall outside the door.  
  
Hesistantly, Cassie ventured through as Dmitria looked up from a....Cassie supposed it was a sofa, to study her from behind her typical yellow veil. Her dark eyes lit up to see a familiar face of a friend.  
  
"Cassie, how nice to see you," she said in perfec standard. "What brings you here?"  
  
"I didn't get a chance to send a message," apologized Cassie, feeling a glad feeling tingle through her to see Dmitria again, safe and sound after the recent war. "I came with your twin and her son, basically."  
  
Above her veil, Cassie noticed Dmitria's eyes widen, and something unreadable enter their dark depths. Cassie was strongly hit with the impression of Divatox's eyes and that of this woman's being identical.  
  
"I see," she said quietly. "You had no trouble getting in, or getting through to other members of my people, any of them?"  
  
"No," said Cassie. "For all his questions, Jaden was easily understandable."  
  
"And Divatox...and her son...they are..." Dmitria stumbled. "I apologize; I am feeling...a bit strange, right now."  
  
"Out in the hall....you wish me to get them?" Cassie thought she could emphasize with Dmitria's uncertainty. The woman had often searched the records for any mention of her long-lost twin, and then to find out she was a henious space pirate....  
  
Dmitria nodded, and for the first time, Cassie saw her transform to a completely humanoid form--a tall, lithe woman who seemed beautiful enough-- what Cassie could tell through the yellow robes and veil, anyway.  
  
Cassie nodded, and ducked her head out into the hall to gesture for Divatox and Tar'yn to enter.  
  
"She wishes to see you," she whispered, seeing the sheer anxiety in Divatox's eyes. "I will remain in the hall, if you like."  
  
"No--stay!" Divatox's face was nearly as white as her gown, and Cassie thought she saw her tremble.  
  
Tar'yn nodded his assent also. "Perhaps it would be less awkward with a person familiar to all of us present," he said in a low tone.  
  
Cassie nodded; feeling a strange flutter in her own stomach as she turned back to the doorway, entering again.  
  
Dmitria rose to her full tall height, studying the figures that came through the doorway.  
  
It had been such a shock when Delphine had contacted her with the news of her twin. At first Dmitria had not wanted to believe it--who wants to find out their closest blood relative is their own worst enemy?  
  
"The genetic scan is positive," Delphine had stated, matter-of-factly. Then she had smiled reassuringly. "While she wants to meet you, Dmitria, she will understand if you don't want to see her--she has said herself she doesn't deserve it. Although I wish you would consent to do so; she is not evil any longer, the purge was wise in choosing who lived and who would be too evil to be destroyed."  
  
Dmitria, her mind swimming, had requested a few days to let it all sink in. Without a word to anyone, she had kept tabs on Divatox for the next couple of days--learning in the process--to her immense shock--that Divatox had reuinted with her son--son?--and that this boy was none other than the Phantom Ranger! Named two names, Shadow most of his life and now known as Tar'yn, this mysterious ranger was her own nephew--half inquris blood, and Dmitria had no doubt that, with his mother's former reputation, the other half was of some vastly different species.  
  
Knowing that mother and son were getting along so well, and of the Phantom Ranger's reputation, was what prompted Dmitria to put aside the last of the doubts tugging at her heart and at least attempt to get to know the sister she had been denied all her life.  
  
For all her life she had felt a part of herself missing, and the feeling had only intensified after she learned of this twin's existence. Now, she hoped to put that missing part to rest at last.  
  
Something strange burned at the back of her throat as she studied the two individuals who stepped silently through the door behind Cassie. One, the boy, had lustrious dark hair that fell charmingly over his forehead. His face turned to her, and she felt a deep shock run through her to see her features in the face of this person's--his only having the addition of a masculine touch because of his gender. The chisled nose, the high cheekbones, the well-formed jaw and mouth--all were hers. Even the hair, to an extent.  
  
It was only his eyes, those piercing green eyes, that were different. Dmitria was not sure she had ever seen eyes that particular odd, deep, and beautiful shade of green before. Nobody she knew had eyes like that--what kind of race could produce such dazzling eyes?  
  
And they spoke strongly of his quiet spirit--the former shadow that had been so strongly affected by Cassie's presence. No wonder she had been drawn to him so!  
  
The woman that stepped hesistantly through was the last of all. Her head was bowed, so her loose dark curls hid her face. She was dressed purely in white and her face was uncovered by a veil.  
  
Strange tingles began to run up Dmitria's spine. Without even seeing this woman's face, she felt something deep within her stir--an old shadow, a memory buried deep within her babyhood experiences before birth--a sense of self and a sense of other, an other that was gone just shortly after she had been born.  
  
It rocketed through Dmitria with a sharp sense of reality, and before the woman could even turn to her, Dmitria had to stifle a gasp of prenatal recognition.  
  
At last, Divatox did turn, and raised her eyes, as if afraid, to meet those of the sister she had never known existed---until recently.  
  
They froze.  
  
Divatox felt as if someone had grabbed her chest and squeezed all the air out of her lungs. Those eyes! Those deep, dark, and fathomless eyes--it was like she were seeing her own eyes set into that of another person!  
  
For in those dark depths she could see herself--and someone that was a total stranger to her. Eyes that burned with the same carefully controlled inner fire that had always kept *her* going, a drive to succeed--and the natural gentleness and serenity that Divatox had herself only recently discovered in herself, a psyche that she had been forced to deny all her life.  
  
*Gods....is Dmitria who I would have been if we had never been seperated? Is this the version of me as a....person of light?*  
  
The thought struck her hard as the proverbial good twin/evil twin duo stared at each other, gauging each other carefully and yet trying desperately to quell their own intense emotions that refused to surface.  
  
Divatox felt something in her heart stir--a feeling she had never before felt, a sense of something she had lost long, long ago in the dark days of a period not granted to her memory--a sense of loss that burned through her like a knife. But looking into those eyes, she felt that burning quenched by a douse of recognition--of finding what she had never been aware she had lost to begin with!  
  
It was a powerful feeling.  
  
The eyes that had deadlocked to hers Dmitria felt herself drowning in. Gone was the crude hatred and vile mannerisms of the Divatox she had known, this woman bore very little resemblance to the space pirate at all. In fact, she looked....she looked.....  
  
As if in a trance, Dmitria reached up and slowly unhooked the fastenings of her face veil. With a maddening lack of speed, she lowered it from her face, so they all saw her features fully for the first time.  
  
The edges of Divatox's vision blurred suddenly. Surely someone had secretly slipped a mirror in front of her eyes--for in the face of her former enemy, she saw herself.  
  
A face absolutely identical to her own.  
  
Dmitria's lithe form stepped forward, the eyes of the twins locked. Divatox could not quite shake the feelings of looking in the mirror as her twin strode closer....and closer, until they were just inches from each other.  
  
The resemblence was shocking. Only two things were different, and they were of little consequence--Dmitria was wearing yellow instead of white, and she had, of late, forcibly straightened her hair. Naturally, it was as curly as the former enemy who stood before her.  
  
Divatox opened her mouth, then shut it. She couldn't talk.  
  
Their eyes never broke contact, each saying what words could not form.  
  
Cassie and Tar'yn, standing aside, could feel the heavy emotion in the air. They remained silent.  
  
It was Dmitria who spoke at last. "You feel it too, then?"  
  
Numbly, Divatox nodded. When Dmitria lifted her hand, fingers outstretched, Divatox slowly copied her, pressing her hand foward until two identical palms touched.  
  
"You are she," whispered Divatox, as if she still couldn't quite believe it. Her heart raced despite all the maddening calm around her. "You are the part of me I was always forced to deny."  
  
"I am that, and I am also not," answerd Dmitria in an even, yet soft, tone. "You are the part of me that I had always sensed missing--can I dare to say that I no longer feel that empty part of myself?"  
  
"Can *I* dare to claim that, also?" Divatox pressed in a breathy whisper. "Dare you accept me into your life--as a friend?"  
  
The last of doubts for Dmitria melted away. "More than that," she breathed. "More than friends--sisters. Is that what you want?"  
  
A strange light flooded Divatox's heart at those words--as if a distant dream, one she had never dreamed even subconsciously, had very abruptly become real.  
  
Just barely, she nodded her head. For the first time, Cassie saw Dmitria smile as she unclasped her hands from her twin's, only to reach out and draw her close.  
  
The look of fulfillment on the faces of both women was priceless.  
  
****  
  
When Dmitria pulled back, her eyes misty, she grinned. "Welcome back to the side of light, Divatox," she said with her quiet serenity.  
  
Her eyes left her twin's and wandered over to Tar'yn.  
  
"I see you brought your son with you. Tar'yn," she mused. "I had no idea my nephew was the mysterious Phantom Ranger who baffled us for so long. It is good to meet you--face-to-face."  
  
He colored slightly. "Honored Dmitria," he said. "It is a pleasure to finally be able to speak freely to you. And an even greater honor to discover we are related by blood."  
  
Dmitria smiled then, a real smile that showed twin rows of white teeth. "Since meeting you when you came to earth those weeks you did, I have listened out for you more. Seems you are an honorable fighter. I am proud to have you as my nephew. There is someone to carry on our line."  
  
"You do not have children?" Cassie blurted out of curiosity, then turned red, mortified, her hands flying up to cover her mouth. Such questions were considered extremely personal among the natives of Inquiris, they were not asked until a solid friendship and trust had been formed.  
  
But Dmitria brushed it off, sensing what she might be thinking. "I consider us good enough friends that I don't mind such a question," she alloted. "Besides, you are human, not an Inquiris native. No, I do not have children as yet."  
  
"A pity," Cassie commented. "You'd make a superb mom."  
  
Her former mentor chuckled. "I have not ruled out the possibility as yet. And, as I said, Divatox has already ensured the line will be carried on--I have since discovered that we are the only two children of our parents. They were guardian warriors of our planet, and died in a skirmish."  
  
Divatox let out a long breath, as if she had been holding it for several moments. "Then they were honorable," she breathed. "I am glad to know the....the 'parents' who raised me--if you call it that--were not my blood parents, nor that demented brother of mine my real brother." She shuddered.  
  
"At least they cared enough to raise you," Dmitria reminded her. "Or you would not be standing here now. Are they still alive?"  
  
"I doubt it. Their natures were pure, black evil." Surprisingly, Divatox did not feel much regret concerning them. They had been too cold to do no more than see she had shelter and food. That was about it. Trained her ruthlessly to be a space pirate, and to deny whatever her heart felt-- except for greed. No questions had been asked on what *she* had wanted-- she had been an obedient slave. By the time she had grown up--she had become a permanent part of their circle--not really able to do anything *but* carry on the family tradition.  
  
Considering how she had been--she hardly figured she owed them her life-- for she had not lived at all until Zordon's purge.  
  
Cassie sighed. "It's so nice to see a complete family reunion," she mused. "What are you going to do now, Divatox? Stay here on Inquiris?"  
  
Divatox shifted. "I don't know," she said, a faint smile on her face. "Questions, questions, questions. Might drive me crazy."  
  
Dmitria laughed. "You'll get used to it."  
  
Divatox smiled, then it faded. "There is something else I feel I need to do," she mused softly. "All my life, I swore up and down I would never let a man touch my heart--besides, for countless eons, there was no chance of it." She heaved a sigh. "Only one man came close. He is the one I want to find--Tar'yn's father."  
  
Tar'yn colored to the roots of his hair.  
  
"My father," he whsipered. "You told me that I was the result of a one- night-stand with a total stranger."  
  
"Barely a truth--there was much more to it than that," whispered Divatox shamefully. "He was not some driftor--he was one of my mother's prisoners-- the only person in my life, besides you, that I ever really cared about."  
  
Tar'yn went deadly pale. "Prisoner?" he echoed. "You had....sex with...."  
  
"Oh, no!" Divatox hastened to interrupt him. "The story is much more complicated than my having a fling with one of her prisoners. Your father....I cared for him. I almost went with him--I would have if I could have at the time."  
  
"Is he who you told me he was?" Tar'yn was pale, and his dazzling eyes had a sheen to them that was rarely seen on someone like him.  
  
"He is not a native of Inquiris, I doubt," observed Dmitria. "I have never seen eyes like yours, Tar'yn, on any of our people--we are all either black- eyed or blue-eyed. Certainly not that dazzling shade of green."  
  
His face darkened further with embarassment.  
  
"No, his father was not of Inquiris," said Divatox, her eyes going distant with memory. "He did not tell me his real name--I knew him only as Eshon, the Eltaran drifter."  
  
"Eltaran?" gasped Dmitria with some surprise. "Tar'yn was sired by an Eltaran?"  
  
*Sired? thought Cassie, though she kept the thought to herself. *What a word.*  
  
Divatox nodded. "Yes. His name was Eshon, and it was his eyes that drew me to him that day, after he and a handful of others had been captured....."  
  
*Flash*  
  
A young Divatox, upon her mother's command, closed the door to the prison cell at the bottom of the submarine. The three prisoners, each in their own cell, would stay there until her mother decided to release or destroy them.  
  
"And it will be your duty to make sure they do not escape, and to tend to the arduous task of caring--" here she "hmmped" loudly, "For them. Don't dissappoint me again, my daughter. You must harden yourself! Only when you are completely cold and greedy can you be rich!"  
  
"Yes, Mother," Divatox replied primely, secretly seething at the woman who had raised her--no, that was the wrong word. She only made sure Divatox ate and had a bed to sleep on at night--and by day, ruthlessly drove her to train as a cold, heartless space pirate. Already, the woman was under her mother's thumb totally, almost as cold and cruel as the rest of them. She strove to hide from her mother the one small part of her that she allowed to feel--she allowed herself to dream--something not allowed to a space pirate.  
  
A few hours later, she resolutely stole down to the prisoner bay, opening each door enough to enter and place a tray within reach of each prisoner chained to the wall by unbreakable chains.  
  
Since she was not as hard and cold as the rest of them, she secretly came close enough to make sure the shackles were not overtight and they had room to lie down without hanging there. A small part of her ached to see them in this condition, and she had to strive hard to hide it.  
  
Until she came to the last cell. She unlocked the door and entered, seeing a tall young man sitting on the floor of his cell, with short dark hair and a face that was turned from her.  
  
"I...brought you your meal," she whispered faintly, startled to feel something strange radiating from him. "You are to eat now. My mother wants all the prisoners in good shape."  
  
"Your mother, hm?" he said, his voice low and even. "Do you always do as she says, with no regard to what you wish?"  
  
She had hardly spoken to him, and already he was speaking her mind.  
  
"Do not talk to me like that," she whispered, voice trembling, for some reason. "I am your jailer, and captor, and as such, you must obey me."  
  
He finally turned his face towards her, and she beheld a ruggedly handsome face with strong, finely chisled features.  
  
It was his eyes, though, that stabbed her--piercing green eyes of a shade that she had never before seen. Beautiful, dazzling green eyes that twisted right into her soul.  
  
"You did not answer me," he said evenly in a soft voice. "Do you always do as your mother blindly bids you?"  
  
"I...." their eyes locked, and she felt a ghostly hand reach up and squeeze her throat. Alive with sensations she had never before felt, she put the tray on the floor, shoving it at him. "Do not talk to me like that ever again!"  
  
She whirled and left the room, slamming the heavy metal door behind her.  
  
It was quite a while before she could bring herself to face him again.  
  
****  
  
Over the next few days, though, she found herself lingering in his cell, talking to him, trying to make him comfortable and occupied when she could-- and always drawn by his eyes, his fathomless eyes that seemed to take her control from her.  
  
And the more often she visited him, the more he looked at her, and the more she felt herself drawn to his deep gaze. She never questioned why, but soon, she was coming back as often as she dared.  
  
It was forbidden, they both knew it. She was evasive in her reasons for coming by, and he did not tell her his name or little from his past. Both understood the underlying reason for her visits--but neither dared mention or do anything about it.  
  
Until the silent urges became too much to bear.  
  
****  
  
"You are a wizard," she said softly, almost accusingly, as she stood there, studying him. "You have that look about you. Many Eltarans are known to practice magic."  
  
"And if I do?" he inquired of her calmly.  
  
"Shouldn't you use it to attempt an escape? I would have."  
  
"That just goes to show you know little of magic," he said. "There is much more than incantations when it comes to magic--many other factors I lack at the moment, for example."  
  
"What is your name?" She wondered why she was so intrigued by this man, nothing more than a prisoner. He seared her in a way she had never before felt, his eyes continually holding hers as if reading her very heart and soul....the type she had long since buired in favor of her career as a space pirate.  
  
"And why do you wish to know?" he asked with that maddening calm of his-- was he always so serene? "Why would you care--a self-proclaimed heartless space pirate?"  
  
"Is the question so offensive to you?" she countered. "I thought it was a simple courtesy on Eltare to ask one's name--our genetics scan tells us you are from the planet."  
  
"What would a space pirate know of courtesy?" he breathed. "You may call me Eshon."  
  
"Eshon," she repeated, feeling a strange sensation roll over her tongue as she said the word--shivers running down her spine all the while. "Is that your true name?"  
  
"It is all you need to know. It is all I have been known by for quite some time."  
  
Surprisingly, she could not bring herself to argue, to force his true name out of him.  
  
"Do all of your kind stare as you do?" she breathed, unable to leave. "I feel as if you can see parts of me even I don't know about."  
  
It was a dangerous admission, one her mother had warned her never to say, but she felt she had no control of herself when he looked into her eyes and laid her bare as if her mind barriers did not exist. But after these past days, she felt helpless in the face of this man's piercing gaze.  
  
"Am I doing this?" he asked of her instead. "Or are you simply laying them bare for me?"  
  
"I..." she was dumbfounded, his eyes never leaving hers. "Don't....don't talk to me like that."  
  
"And why not? It is not an untruth. I do not lie."  
  
Desperately, she groped for some way to change the subject. "Do you have family, Eshon?"  
  
"Why do you wish to know?"  
  
"Damnit, Eshon, stop being difficult!" she pleaded, her eyes burning as his gaze became even more intense. "No more evading my questions! I can't think when I am around you!"  
  
"Is it necessary to be on the alert around a simple prisoner?" he queried. Unbidden, his hand reached over and touched hers.  
  
To her own shock, she did not draw away. "I would not hurt you, Divatox," he assured her softly.  
  
"You hurt me?" a smile touched her lips. "Not in your position, I doubt it. But if our situations were reversed?"  
  
"If our situations were reversed, you would never have been my prisoner, and I think you know it. I would rather show you how to fly free, not chain you down like some animal."  
  
His hand rose from hers up to her face, his eyes never leaving hers--and a strange emotion entering them, and she felt an answering call in her own heart, thundering through her whole body--something she could not stop.  
  
"I cannot fly!" she cried through the roar in her ears. "Flying is impossible, Eshon! Life isn't like that!"  
  
"How wrong you are," he murmured, his fingers, as if he could not help it, running over her lips. "I wish I could show you how easy it is to soar, Divatox. Then you would understand."  
  
"How?" she almost whimpered, the intensity in his dazzling green eyes almost commanding her to inch her face ever closer. "How can a prisoner show me how to fly?"  
  
"The answer is in the heart," he breathed, and she could feel the warm breath from his lips against her own. Her heart skyrocketed in rhythm, a dangerous tattoo she could not control.  
  
"It is in my heart, Divatox, despite the fact it should never be--not with one that should be considered my enemy," he breathed. "But it is. Forever lodged, and desperate to soar. The question is--is it in yours?"  
  
"I don't know," she whispered, her eyes burning. "I don't know--my heart is something to be denied. It is too cold. It can never soar."  
  
The admission only seemed to fuel his determination. "Are you sure? Or would you want to find out differently?"  
  
"I....don't know...."  
  
Both his hands were on her face now; cupping her chin and his eyes never leaving hers. "Do you wish to find out?"  
  
"I....how?" she at last breathed, unable to stand his overpowering presence.  
  
He did not need a further invitation. Gently, his hands urged her face closer to his, and she was powerless to do nothing but comply.  
  
Their lips met in a fusing, burning candence, and the floor fell away from beneath her feet.  
  
As if desperate to hold her to him, his arms slid fully about her body, pulling her slender form as close to him as he dared. His mouth on hers gently urged her lips open, and she gasped into his mouth when his tongue softly sought entrance between her soft, pliant lips.  
  
*What is happening to me?* her brain begged her concience as she moaned softly, unable to stop this or control herself. Her heart exploded in her chest at his tender ministrations, struggling to free itself of the fierce chains she had held it there with all her life.  
  
It terrified her. *No! This is not who I am supposed to be! If I feel this way, Mother will not only kill me, she will kill him as well!*  
  
With a ragged gasp, she jerked her mouth from his and tore from his grasp. "Eshon! No! This is not meant to be!"  
  
She scrambled to her feet and backed away from him, but could not tear her tear-filled eyes from his fathomless green ones.  
  
The sudden pain in his eyes echoed her own.  
  
"If you cannot bridge the gap between our vastly different worlds, then I can do nothing to help you, no matter how I feel," his words ached in her own heart. "I know it was possibly foolish to fall in love with you, Divatox, but I will not deny what my own heart says. If you choose do follow that path, then I cannot stop you."  
  
She fumbled for the door, only at the last moment tearing her eyes from his as she pushed the deadbolt. No! It could not happen--for his own safety and hers.  
  
****  
  
She awoke that night sobbing. His eyes haunted her dreams, and she could not forget how, for a few moments, she nearly had soared, as he had promised.  
  
Was this the love she had so often dreamed about? Did it drive her to such heights--and drag her through such pain as she felt now? Or drive her to do dangerous consequences to be in the arms of....of someone she could not deny herself?  
  
For that was what she was doing, her feet slipping silently down the corridors to his cellroom. She no longer cared of the consequences; She had to know--*had* to know the truth, for her own sanity.  
  
He was not asleep, she could tell even when she entered his cell soundlessly. However, in the dim light his green eyes glowed, and she could see the desperation in them as he reached for her, drawing her to him with a ragged half-sob she had not thought him--the cool, even-tempered Eshon--capeable of doing.  
  
Just vageuly, before his lips crushed hers, she heard him whisper, "My love," a sound that was to linger on her ears for many a year to come.  
  
"I love you, Eshon," she whispered in angony against his lips. "I can't deny it. Make me soar--show me how to fly. Please."  
  
As he crushed her to him, his fingers fumbling with the buttons of her nightgown, she knew he would do just that.  
  
The rest of the night slid away into the delicious, forbidden dream it would have to remain to be.  
  
****  
  
She certainly could not have him stay as her mother's prisoner. Him or the other two prisoners. She would stand to let her mother sell them to a slave-trade post like she planned. She had to free them, soon.  
  
"I will tell you the encryption codes," she whispered to them. "And the tracking systems will meet with a little accident. Since she figures you can't escape, your ship is unguarded; you will have a clear path to it. You will all be able to escape."  
  
"You must come with me," Eshon pleaded, running his fingers through her hair, as if desperate to keep the contact. "I can't leave you here." His green eyes were bright with tears. "You are my heart, Divatox. Without you, I am nothing."  
  
"I feel the same way," she quivered. "I will never love another, I will make sure of that. But I am too deeply ensnared in this world, Eshon. I could never leave it, no matter how I might want it. If I left with you, Mother would not stop until she found us and murdered us. What would that get us? She's ruthless, and she knows me too well. At least this way, you will live."  
  
"No chance at all?"  
  
"No. I've seen her do this before to those who escaped. I don't need to repeat the gory details. Gods, Eshon, this isn't fair!" she sobbed, tears flowing freely down her face as his lips found hers. "I love you. I never thought I could love. You taught me to soar. But never again can I fly free, even after tasting the forbidden."  
  
"You are capeable of so much more!" he protested softly, his own tears mixing with hers.  
  
"Perhaps," she conceded. "But we would be dead before we could discover how much more. This is meant to be, Eshon. She will likely discover who it is who let you go, but by that time, she can't do much about it. I won't forget you."  
  
"Nor I you," he quivered, as he kissed her one last time. "Good bye, my love."  
  
****  
  
"They're gone!" shrieked Divatox's mother as she paced the bridge angrily. "They could never have gotten away--what a time for the tracking systems to break down! Get them running again!"  
  
But by the time they scrambled to obey her, it was too late. The prisoners were gone, and with them Divatox's last chance to change to who she truly was. She had done it for the safety of the one person she had ever felt love for; the one person who had made her feel--and she was certain, as the ice of evil reclaimed her heart, that she would never feel again. Eshon had taken that ability with him when he escaped.  
  
When she started getting sick, and a month later, discovered she was pregnant, only then did her mother discover who had helped the prisoners escape. Even Divatox had to admit her timely pregnancy with a halfbreed child made it kind of obvious.  
  
"It was *you*!!!" Her mother screamed at her daughter, slapping her to the floor while her brother Havok looked on, amused. "That bastard child you carry is half-eltaran. You were having an affair with that Eltaran prisoner--who else would have helped them escape?"  
  
"It's too late now," said Divatox maliciously, laughing and no longer caring what her mother did to her. "They are long gone. You would never find them."  
  
"That is true, damn it!" hissed her mother. "And that leaves the question of what do do with your unwanted brat. You have shamed me, Divatox, greatly shamed me, cavorting with prisoners way below you on the scale of society."  
  
"As if *you* have never taken the idyllic tumble with others besides father!" she sharply retorted. "Did you know I knew about that? How do you have room to talk!"  
  
"They were richer than simple prisoners, too!" snapped her mother. "Your father does the same thing, like I really care if he sleeps around. It's the way things are when it's only done for a fun time. So I guess I can't fault you a good tumble every now and then, but for pity's sake, girl, do it with the high and mighty. Don't let the so-called heart of yours get involved. Sex means nothing. That of itself isn't the issue--but your brat is. It will be a burden to you. Better get rid of it."  
  
"No!" Divatox crossed her hands over her abdomen in a protective instinct. "I will have this baby, train him or her to be one of us. You claim you want more of us anyways to help. Well, you just got a free chance to have one."  
  
"*You* train the brat? I hardly think so," snorted her mother. "You are too soft as it is. He or she will be so namby-pamby it'll be useless to us."  
  
"Oh, I am not anymore," Divatox laughed coldly. "Not anymore."  
  
For she was now doubly certain that Eshon, when he left, had taken her ability to feel with her. For all she felt after that was ice.  
  
She truly no longer cared.  
  
And when her son was born, some months later, with nothing of his features to remind her of his father to her relief--until she looked into his eyes, and saw their dazzling green shade. She knew then that, while she might love him, she could never show it. Not when those eyes had belong to a person who had taken her heart with him when he left. This baby was only a shadow of the man she had loved, so that was the common name she gave him: Shadow. So strong was her desire for this name, it was only an afterthought that she gave him the secret name of Tar'yn.  
  
*Flash*  
  
By now Divatox was sobbing on her son's shoulder as she finished spilling the story. His eyes weren't dry, either.  
  
"I had no idea..." stammered Tar'yn. "You *loved* my father. I was not the result of a cold liason after all?"  
  
"Most certainly not," Divatox quivered, dragging her sleeve across her face in a futile effort to stop her tears. "You were the product of love, Tar'yn, it is time you knew that. If he is alive..." her lips curved into a smile, "then it is time Eshon met his son."  
  
Cassie, too, was wiping her eyes. "You don't know many personal details of this Eshon, do you?" she asked daringly.  
  
"Not too much," quivered Divatox. "Eshon was either an alias, nickname, or shortening of his real name. I don't know his last name. I believe he was a wizard or sage of some sort, I could tell that right off. And his eyes were unmistakable. I think he has a sister. But this was eons ago. He could be dust in his grave by now. He was an Eltaran drifter, that was quite true--it's not the safest occupation in the universe."  
  
Dmitria was thinking. "Since I was so closely associated with Eltare during the war, even before, I have easy access to their records," she mused. "If I could have your genetic record, Tar'yn, I could cross- reference it with what is left of the genetic library. Some of it was destroyed during the war, so we might not come up with anything. And I could also cross-reference it with the handful of Eltaran refugee camps that are scatterd around--there's one on Phaedos, one near Auqitar, another new one on Triforia. It won't take long to cross reference the first few, but if that comes up fruitless, you will have to pay a personal visit to Triforia to obtain their files. Triforia is a private world, you know-- Trey and his sister Sharie represent people who dislike sharing private details of their medical history with outsiders without reason, you know."  
  
"I'll do it," said Tar'yn immediately. "I have wanted to meet my father for a long, long time." He felt Cassie squeeze his hand. "And now I have a real chance."  
  
As Dmitria had promised, it did not take long to do the cross-referencing, but everywhere came up negative.  
  
"The only place we haven't checked is Triforia," said Dmitria about an hour later. "Either his file is missing, your father is still drifting and is probably even unaware of the war his homeworld went rhough, or he is by some miracle on Triforia. You will have to go there to obtain permission. If you like, I'll send a message to Trey telling him to expect your arrival. He will be happy to help you, especially considering the circumstances."  
  
****  
  
"Welcome to Triforia," said Trey, stepping out of the shadows as soon as the teleportation beam released all three occupants. "I got Dmitria's message, and I will help you in any way I can."  
  
"Thank you," said Cassie. "Tommy told me about you. He was right, too, I can tell."  
  
"Tommy is a good friend," said Trey, smiling at her warmly. "Now, what is the specific purpose of your visit?"  
  
Tar'yn did not beat around the bush. "I am looking for my father."  
  
Trey raised an eyebrow. "Your father? Who is your father?"  
  
"He might be among the Eltaran refugees in the refugee city you have set up on the southern continent," said Cassie when Tar'yn blushed.  
  
"I only knew him as Eshon," said Divatox. "He gave me no other name, and I have no way of knowing if it was his true one or not."  
  
"That is why we came," said Cassie. "Divatox and Tar'yn would like your permission to explore your medical genetic records of these people--if you have them--and try and look for Eshon among the Eltaran popluation. May we search?"  
  
He nodded his head, as informal a ruler as Cassie had ever seen. "But of course. You are free to visit where you must, and go where you must. My sister and I have both worked hard to give the Eltarans a home here, but she has worked on a more personal basis with the individual eltarans than I have--she knows them much better than me. Might I refer you to her?"  
  
Cassie nodded.  
  
****  
  
"I would love to help you," said the young Triforian girl who came into view. "What do you require?"  
  
Cassie studied her for a moment--she looked like Trey, but the golden curls and purple eyes made her seem much more innoncent than her brother--much younger. But not as young as her eighteen years implied.  
  
"We need to cross-reference the genetic codes," answered Cassie. "See if we can come up with a family match. Then determine if Tar'yn's father is among the crowd."  
  
"Divatox's son, hm?" Sharie mused, as she studied the boy and his mother. "Welcome to the side of light, Divatox. I am glad you are deciding to persue this matter--finding loved ones is rewarding, so I have heard."  
  
She studied Tar'yn, and her eyes suddenly widened. "Your eyes," she breathed suddenly, staring at him in shocked surprise. "Do your eyes come from your mother or your father?"  
  
"My father."  
  
"I think that can help me narrow the search right there," she said unexpectedly. "There are two siblings among the Eltarans with just that eye color--and they are the only ones. I will run the genetic scans-- perhaps you are at least related to them."  
  
****  
  
A few minutes later, the computer printed out the results.  
  
"I don't believe this," Sharie breathed. "You have a positive match, Tar'yn. Your Eltaran bloodline comes from the D'Taran family of Eltare. Those individuals I spoke to you about? They are from that very family-- among the last."  
  
Tar'yn's chest felt tight. "Could either of those be my father?"  
  
"Only one. The other is his sister."  
  
"Eshon told me he had a sister," supplied Divatox hopefully.  
  
Sharie paused. "Would this Eshon have any idea he has a son from you, Divatox?"  
  
"No. I...loved him..." She stumbled. "I sent him away from my mother--he was her prisoner--to save his life. Long before I knew I was with child."  
  
She was grateful when Sharie did not overpress her for the painful details, only nodding in silent comprehension and no shadow of condemning feeling appearing in her eyes or manner.  
  
"How old are you, Tar'yn?"  
  
He told her, and she bit her lip. "It is within the correct age range," she mused. "The man I am thinking of is a couple of centuries older than that. Probably around your age, Divatox. If he isn't your father, then he is a relative and certainly knew him."  
  
"What are their names?" asked Tar'yn, trying to hide a sense of growing impatience.  
  
"The sister is Elsha. The brother is Endihashon. Eshon is a plausible nickname." She studied Tar'yn's eyes. "Your eyes are so much like his-- but his are so sad, as if he lost something so long ago he knew he could never get back. Would you like me to help arrange something?"  
  
"Is it possible? What's he like? Is he well?" Tar'yn suddenly stumbled the questions.  
  
Sharie held up her hand to stop the flow of words. "Whoa, there. He's fine. He's a young man still, I guess, in Eltaran terms. His eyes are sad, I don't know why. He used to be a drifter. No wife or kids that he's told me about. Refuses to fall in love, but he's a kind enough man when I speak to him. He's a friend, actually. You will like him."  
  
Divatox was very, very pale. "Can we see him first, without him seeing us? I want to see if it is him. If he isn't, then...."  
  
"Then I won't expose you to him, if that is what you want, if he is not the man you are looking for. But he's from the family line that matches your genetic sequence, Tar'yn--he is related closely still, one way or another."  
  
"Maybe," allowed Tar'yn softly. "I want to see him. Then I'll decide."  
  
****  
  
The central commune area of the recently-built refugee city was bright, fresh, and clean. Everything around them looked like a normal city for anyone's standards--a silent tip of the hat, Cassie mused, to the warm hospitality of Triforian nature.  
  
"Is this a temporary settlement?" asked Cassie, looking around here. "It sure looks like permanent structures."  
  
"Has to be, to house five thousand refugees. This settlement's been used before for this purpose--it's been refurbished recently, that's why it looks so new. No refugee has to enjoy a lower standard of living than the rest of us because they are in flight from evil," Sharie explained, as if it were natural. "It will be open to the Eltarans as long as they need it."  
  
The commune area was, at this time of day, nearly empty of traffic. A few people sat here and there on the benches, or at eating tables in small cafes. But otherwise, it was deserted.  
  
Sharie quickly pulled her new friends around a corner. "They're here," she whispered softly to them. "Over there, on the bench near the park entrance. See them?"  
  
"Where?" Divatox felt as if her legs went to jelly as she stood on her toes, craning her neck to look around the corner where Sharie was indicating. When her eyes settled on the pair Sharie had indicated, she stopped breathing.  
  
"Is it him?" Sharie whispered as she was nearly squashed, for Tar'yn was pressing on her as he attempted to look around the corner also. "Hey, not so hard!"  
  
"Sorry," Tar'yn whispered, while Divatox found herself unable to say anything.  
  
For the image she saw was reverberating so sharply though the years, for a few moments, the last several eons ceased to exist. Her heart gave a painful lurch, and by the time she pulled herself back, tears were running down her face--tears of sheer agony.  
  
"I suppose that answers my question," Sharie whispered, seeing this. "So that is your Eshon. Would you like me to introduce you?"  
  
"I...." Divatox struggled to find the words to say something, as Tar'yn again struggled to see the person who was his father, and getting a clear image of him for the first time.  
  
He didn't look much like him, and almost scoffed for a second, until he saw the man's eyes for himself.  
  
He felt a similar blow in his stomach. For at last, he was seeing eyes that were clearly like his own. Something strange that had been sitting heavily on his chest suddenly lifted, and he drew a deeper breath than he could ever recall taking before.  
  
*That is him,* Cassie heard echoing longingly in her mind. *Not only do my eyes tell me, so, but....here, too.* His hand inadvertently covered his heart for a moment.  
  
*Good.* Cassie smiled in satisfaction. *That is the way it should be.*  
  
"Can you talk to him first?" squeaked Divatox in a hoarse whisper. "At least make him approachable. I....don't know what to say to him."  
  
"If you want me to start him talking, I will try," the young Triforian Princess conceded. "But when I give the indication, you had better come out and face him for yourselves."  
  
****  
  
Discreetly, The trio that had come from Inquiris followed behind Sharie as they made their way towards the couple on the bench. The two did not notice, for brother and sister seemed to be actively engaged in some sort of conversation or other.  
  
Finally, Sharie pushed them behind the large gates to the park entrance, and approached the pair alone.  
  
It was Elsha who noticed her first. "Hello, Sharie," she greeted, waving her over with one hand as her other tucked her dark hair out of her face. Her green eyes sparkled with a gentle, humorous nature. "Nice to see you today. What brings you here? I thought you were working on that terraforming lunar project or something."  
  
"I am helping some friends," Sharie answered as she settled in beside them. "Actually, though, I came to talk to you, Endihashon."  
  
"Me?" the man seemed surprised. "What brings you here, then?"  
  
"Have you been keeping up on current events around the local portion of the universe, Endihashon?" she queried to her friend. "Do you know what has happened to some of those evil after Zordon's wave? Those that survived?"  
  
A puzzled frown crossed his face. "Some," he said. "Why?"  
  
"What do you know?"  
  
He looked puzzled at her unusual line of questioning. "Well, Zedd and Rita survived. That's easy, they attacked this planet at the last, remember? Gasket, Archarina, Sprockett, Master Vile, even Astronema. There could be some others."  
  
Sharie drew a deep breath. "There were indeed others. Espeically someone from the space pirate commune. I have been contacted about attempting to locate you, *Eshon*, because she has been looking for you since Zordon's purge removed all traces of evil from her heart. She claims to have once known you eons ago."  
  
Eshon had gone shockingly white at the way she said his nickname. "What are you saying?"  
  
Sharie stood up, gesturing behind her back. "Come out here, Divatox."  
  
Before anybody even moved, a soundless gasp issured from Eshon's throat. Just feet away, behind the park entrance, a woman in white stepped forward, her bowed head full of dark curls hiding her face.  
  
Hand over his heart, Eshon rose from the bench.  
  
The woman lifted her face, smiling faintly, her dark eyes glittering with suppressed tears. "Hello, Eshon."  
  
Eshon's hand moved from his heart to his mouth. No air could get into his lungs, he was too shocked. The vision of the woman before him cut sharply through the years, reverberating so strongly that, for a discreet moment, he could clearly make a connection.  
  
Dazzling green eyes met bottomless dark ones, catching them in a vortex of time where only both existed.  
  
Elsha, too, could only stare, but she knew she was excluded from their notice. She was one of the few who knew that once, Eshon and the so-called terrible Divatox had once been lovers--for a single night. He had returned from that encounter eons ago, hopelessly in love and almost as hopelessly heartbroken. Such a strong encounter had ruined him for loving any other woman, although she could hardly blame him--such a bond was the nature of Eltarans.  
  
She shifted, just slightly. Now here she was again. Elsha had no doubt that this was the Divatox that her Eshon had seen--the good side of her that she had been forced to bury. Zordon's purge had restored it fully to her, and by the way she was looking at Eshon, the bond they had formed those eons ago still existed--forged in one night of burning passion. Wow!  
  
"*Please* tell me I am not dreaming," Divatox heard him vaguely whisper over the roar of her ears. She saw his eyes burn with tears.  
  
"I am real," she answered, her heart thudding painfully. "A--are you?"  
  
He advanced on her, as if in a trance. "If this is a dream," he breathed, "When I awaken, I will not live long. I can't go through such a real seperation again."  
  
"I was not sure you would care," she choked, overwhelmed by his nearness. Dreams couldn't do that--could they? "I had to force you to leave--"  
  
"Not care?" he ground out, his eyes not merely burning now, but on fire. Tenatively, he cupped her chin in his hand, as if he was afraid to touch her, lest she melt away.  
  
She was solid--very, very real.  
  
"Not care?" he repeated. "It went beyond so much more than that, back then Divatox! You stole my heart and my ability to care when I was forced to flee from your side, lest we both be killed by that mother of yours. You have them still. Is that what you wanted to hear? Why did you come back, seeking me after so long?"  
  
"I had to," she whimpered."I have things I must tell you--but I hope you still care now, too."  
  
"Are you married, Divatox? Anyone else of that sort in your life?" he demanded out of the blue, his eyes desperately searching hers for something.. She blinked in surprise, shaking her head. What did he--  
  
Any thought was abruptly cut off when his other hand raised up, now both hands framing her face. Before she could react, he tilted her face upwards and pressed his lips down on hers--hard.  
  
She froze for a split second, completely stunned. Her heart had already been beating wildly, now it began to hammer so hard in her chest she was sure it was going to break free of it's confines. Surges of pure emotion drowned her senses, a desperate sense of need and longing overpowering it all. Of her own will, she unfroze and let her arms slip around his neck; he in turn crushed her to him as tightly as he could without cutting off her air supply--all in a desperate bid to hold onto her and this time-- never, ever let go!  
  
Tar'yn made a choking sound, and his hand flew to his mouth to stifle any noise that might have escaped. His other hand, holding Cassie's, clamped hers hard, and her own mind reverberated his stunned confusion.  
  
*I had hoped they could meet and get along,* she heard his shocked voice in her mind. *I certainly did not expect this! He doesn't even know I exist yet!*  
  
*Does it bother you?*  
  
*Hardly! I just hope it doesn't change when he realizes he has a son!*  
  
It was then Cassie realized that what was playing out--two star-crossed lovers reuniting--had been a fantasy for Tar'yn when he was younger, and now, to his considerable surprise, it was playing out right before his eyes.  
  
It was only when their lungs were bursting did Eshon reluctantly break his lips from hers. A breeze blowing made them vaguely aware that both their faces were damp; neither cared a whit.  
  
"Now do you understand my feelings?" he whispered. "I still love you. I give thanks that you are not a dream--no dream can react or feel like that." A faint smile crossed his lips. "Gods, Divatox, tell me you still feel the same way, too. Don't, I beg of you, turn me out of your life again after appearing so suddenly again to me."  
  
"I love you!" she choked, dizzy with overwhelming emotion. "Damnit, Eshon, it is I who should be begging *you* not to walk out of my life. Especially considering the way I was. I am free of the constraints of evil, now--I had hoped to find you to at least settle things between us--and to relate something important."  
  
"I don't want you to leave my side!" he insisted, catching her hand and holding it to his breast. She could feel the wild thudding beneath her fingertips--a surging candence keeping time with her own skyrocketing pulse. "My heart's finally beating again for the first time in such a long time--is it possible for us? At all?"  
  
Hot tears ran down her face again. He still wanted her? After all that had transpired? "It is," she whispered. "If you are willing to accept a few things that are different."  
  
"Anything!" he promised, sweeping her close and neither caring. "Anything at all--as long as I can have you back--for good."  
  
"I hope that is true, Eshon." he could detect a very real murmer in her voice. "I wish that I had been able to track you better after I made you escape. What happened, what I discovered, aftwerards, you should have known about then--but you must know now."  
  
"What?" It was said softly. Aside, Sharie and Elsha exchanged smiles, both glad to see the distant, unreachable Endihashon finally glow with life once more.  
  
"I did not get a chance to tell you....I was..." Divatox stopped, unable to get the words out. Finally, she managed, "Tar'yn."  
  
"Who?" Eshon questioned, then all words died in his throat as two more people emerged from behind the park gate.  
  
The first was a beautiful girl dressed in pink, he clearly recognized her as one of Earth's ledgendary rangers. By the hand, though, she pulled a boy with wavy-curly dark hair--and Divatox's face.  
  
"Oh....Gods..." the few words in his mouth died completely when the boy's face was fully revealed, and clear green eyes, exactly like his own, stared back at him.  
  
"What I did not know at the time," Divatox found her tongue, just barely. "I was pregnant...with your son."  
  
"My....son?" Eshon could not believe his eyes or his ears. His son? This boy--created out of just one night of passion? This was...his son?  
  
It *was* unmistakable that he belonged to Divatox, that he could tell right off--her face and hair were etched onto his, only more firmly chisled. But....*his*, as well? Only his dazzling green eyes gave any evidence of this fact, but with eyes like that, it was enough to convince Eshon that it was true.  
  
"This is your son," whispered Divatox, watching him carefully, hoping against hope he would not turn away. "His name is Tar'yn."  
  
"Tar'yn," Eshon echoed, reality slowly sinking in. "He....I have a son...."  
  
A faint nod came from the boy. "Yes, I am your son. I knew the instant I saw you that my mother's words were true."  
  
His initial surprise fading away, acceptance of the fact slowly replaced it. "My son," he whispered, two sets of identical green eyes locking. "I can't believe this, but it is real, isn't it? I never thought I would have a child with anybody."  
  
"Nor did I dream I would meet my real father," answered Tar'yn, the soft overtones of his voice jolting Cassie, standing nearby, with something new....the overtones strongly echoed Eshon's.  
  
"Come closer, boy," Eshon requested. "This is the first time I have learned I had a son, you understand--I would like to see you better. Come out of the shadows."  
  
Tar'yn obeyed, stepping fully out into broad daylight. Elsha sported a big grin on her pretty face as she got up, also wanting to see this surprise nephew she hadn't known existed until now.  
  
"He's a handsome boy, Eshon!" she could not help but remark approvingly. Tar'yn colored, but could not help but instantly like this forward, friendly woman. He quickly understood that this was her nature, unlike her quiet brother.  
  
"When were you born?" asked Eshon gently, hoping that Tar'yn would not take the question the wrong way. He was well-built, and his eyes were clear--a sure sign of a good character.  
  
Tar'yn whispered the date.  
  
"Six months after I left," breathed Eshon. "Uh, Divatox, you know I never knew where you were from. I'd hate to think he was born premature or anything."  
  
"I recently discovered I was from Inquiris, Eshon," she answered, glad he did not seem to be denying his son. Her eyes sparkled this relief. "And their pregnancies are six months along. He was born on time."  
  
His eyes glowed with approval. "My son," he breathed. "I am....glad to meet you, Tar'yn. I hope you forgive my earlier surprise."  
  
"Nothing to forgive." Tar'yn smiled. "I have looked for you for a long time. Once Mother was cleared by Zordon's purge and we were reunited, we doubled our search."  
  
Something didn't sound right to Eshon. He held up his hand. "Wait a minute. Reunited? Don't tell me he grew up seperate from you, Divatox."  
  
She fidgeted, her face ducking in shame. "Your son is much stronger of character than I am, Eshon," she whispered. "I raised him, but to follow in my footsteps. However, when he was a couple of centuries old, he saw the light and had the courage to do what I could not do. He left to join the side of light, and for many melennia, I had no knowledge of what had happened to him."  
  
"What *did* happen to you?" Eshon was truly surprised.  
  
"Ever hear of the Phantom Ranger?" Eshon nodded at Divatox's inquiry. "Well, he was part of that silent order of Eltaran voyagers. Many a time I faced my own son on the battlefield and did not know it. Gods, when I think about that...." Divatox turned away, awaiting judgment by Eshon.  
  
"I wrestled with myself for some time to seek her out after the purge," said Tar'yn quietly. "For we had never been close. But...after seeing her, and understanding that she had cared all along, I knew I could give her another chance. Gods, she doesn't know yet how much I had missed her."  
  
Without another word, he reached out to his mother and firmly turned her back to face them both. She could not look either of them in the eyes.  
  
"Listen, mother," he said quietly. "It's in the past, you are no longer that monster trapped in the web of evil you were rasied in. You arent that person any more, so put it behind you. I did, surely you can."  
  
"After all I have done?" she whispered. "I never dreamed I would meet Eshon again, Tar'yn. I count my blessings every day that I had *you* back, and we could start over again like a mother and son truly should be. Eshon...."  
  
"Divatox, please trust me," he pleaded softly, his eyes burning bright green embers as he turned her to face him. "I love you. Even when you were ensnared in the evil that you grew up in, I could still see the light in you. It was hell being seperated from you, I have not lived since....it was merely survival. I *won't* let you go again." His arms slid around her, and she sighed and sagged against him as he continued.  
  
"We have a son," he intoned softly. "And he turned out to be someone I can truly be proud of. Even if he had followed in your footsteps and had merely been purged, I am not so unfeeling that I could not care." He gently urged her gaze to his. "If you will let me, my love, I want to be at your side for the rest of our days. And," his green gaze turned to his son. "And if you permit it, Tar'yn, I would love getting to know you, as well."  
  
Tar'yn nodded, his eyes bright. "I never dreamed this day would come when I could face you, and you accept me, but I am grateful," he said. "And I can tell you are a wonderful person. I look forward to getting to know you better, Eshon."  
  
"Eshon?" squeaked Divatox. "Truly?"  
  
Eshon nodded emphatically. "How could you *or* I have it any other way?"  
  
"Oh, Eshon!" she cried, lunging forward into his arms. He caught her hand held her close, clasping her to his heart where she belonged.  
  
When she pulled away, Eshon smiled and reached out a hand for his son's. Tar'yn didn't even hesistate, he accepted his father's hand, and the other, his mother's. The family circle stood, complete at last, and the feeling of peace permeated the commune area.  
  
Elsha, Sharie, and Cassie all exchanged satisfied smiles. At long last, the last of their bruised hearts were on the mend, and it was a satisfying feeling.  
  
****  
  
"Eshon?" asked Tar'yn, finally releasing his hands from those of his parents. "There is someone else I would introduce you to. Cassie?"  
  
Cassie blinked, surprised to hear her name. She came forward when Tar'yn beckoned to her.  
  
"Eshon, this is Cassie, the..."  
  
"The pink lightstar ranger," finished Eshon, grinning at their twin expressions of surprise. "Yes, I know. News of your adventures travels far and wide, child."  
  
Cassie blushed, but compled when Tar'yn reached for her hand. He pulled her to him, wrapping his arms around her so she leaned back against the solid wall of his chest. His chin rested on top of her midnight hair as he grinned to his father. "Cassie is not only the pink lightstar ranger, she is the woman I love," he informed quietly. "She saved me from an eternal world of shadows."  
  
Cassie blushed an even brighter pink, but held onto Tar'yn even tighter.  
  
Eshon only smiled, approvingly. "Then hold onto her tight, son," he said gruffly. "Don't, whatever you do, let her get away from you."  
  
"I would not dream of letting him go," Cassie spoke up before Tar'yn could.  
  
"And I won't let you, either," he responded, turning her around in his arms and kissing her briefly. "Not when it was your light that drove the shadows of my own past away."  
  
Elsha smiled behind her hand. Love, it was so grandeur....  
  
****  
  
"Where do you plan to go?" asked Sharie as everyone got up to leave.  
  
By this time, Eshon had heard most of the story behind Tar'yn, Divatox herself, and Cassie, so he understood when Divatox said, "I recieved an offer from Dmitria to live with her on Inquiris," she said softly. "But wherever you want to go, Eshon, I will go also."  
  
"There's the refugee base here on Triforia," he answered, "And if my family home wasn't destroyed on Eltare, that could also be used. Or I will follow you to Inquiris. I would not dream of keeping you from the sister you have never known of until recently--especially the mighty Dmitria."  
  
"I also would not want to seperate you from your sister," said Divatox, giving Elsha a courtesoy nod. "Seems to me you two are close."  
  
"Eshon's dragged me from pillar to post when I've stayed with him," answered Elsha with a smile. "And I have also lived on my own. I was even a Power Ranger for a time, a couple of melennia ago. I am so used to both situations it's no biggie. I'm the independent sort."  
  
"Triforia's open to you, whenever you wish it," Sharie interjected quietly.  
  
"I think," mused Eshon, "That this is a situation that can be decided later. Right now," he smiled down at Divatox, who's eyes sparkled. "I think we have some catching up to do."  
  
****  
  
Sharie Triesta was about to slip quietly away when she was intercepted by Cassie.  
  
"I almost forgot," said Cassie quickly, "We didn't even thank you for helping us locate Eshon! Thank you, for all your help. It was all worth it to see Divatox and Tar'yn happy."  
  
"It is no problem," Sharie said quietly, with a smile. Her purple eyes sparkled in understandaing. "Love...I would not dream of standing in the way of it, if I see possiblities. Trey will deny it, but he knows it was my matchmaking that brought him and Delphine together."  
  
"Him and Delphine?" grinned Cassie. "Wow. What a match. Tommy told me splintering is no problem for your people anymore."  
  
"No. And thank goodness, or Trey would be very unhappy without Delphine."  
  
"Hope to see you again sometime," said Cassie as Sharie turned to leave.  
  
"Oh, you will, I have little doubt," said the Triforian unexpectedly. "Trey and I have been discussing contacting you about rebuilding our defenses and the lives of some planets around here. I do think we will meet again."  
  
"Good," Cassie grinned, liking Sharie immensely. "Are you single, Sharie?"  
  
She caught the Triforian girl by surprise. "Well....I guess so," she admitted. "Why?"  
  
"Because I am tired of prodding Carlos about getting a date. You seem his type, you know..."  
  
Sharie smirked.  
  
"I have been guilty of playing matchmaker myself," said Cassie with a grin. "Sorry. Can't blame me."  
  
"Don't worry about it. We'll see about your Carlos when the time comes." Sharie laughed. "Goodnight, Cassie."  
  
"Goodnight."  
  
****  
  
"I used to dream of the proverbial happy endings in fairy tales," Cassie mused as Tar'yn held her that night as they stared at the stars from the Megaship. "I always wondered if it could happen in real life. Do you think it can, Tar'yn?"  
  
"Let me put it this way," he turned her around to face him. "Many tales seem to start spinning on stories of darkness and dispair, where the shadows of the world and the heart are many, the joys few. Then the love of the hero or heroine's life shows up and changes that person's world forever. Even if they try to resist, in the end, the love is too powerful to deny." He leaned down and kissed her, feeling her shiver from his touch. "Is what we share a fairy tale?" he breathed against her lips.  
  
"In a way, I could see it like that," she answered against his mouth, feeling him kiss her again. "When we realized we loved each other, and could be together--I felt all the shadows being extinguished by a fiery light that allows no room for darkness. That happens in a lot of fairytales near the end. Except that this is reality. Is that how you feel?"  
  
"You are my fairy princess," he mused, tucking her hair out of her face so he could kiss her harder. "Does happily ever after sound good to you?"  
  
"We'll work on it," she laughed as he dropped tiny kisses on her face, his hands working their way around her boy. "No matter what happens in the future, or what dangers, as long as we love each other, it will always be happily ever after."  
  
****  
  
The three moons of Triforia glowed brightly that night. Safe in the arms of someone she had never again expected to be with, Divatox stared up at the sky.  
  
"The stars are so bright tonight...and so high up," she mused. "All my life they seemed to be so cold. Now....they aren't distant at all."  
  
"To be easily reached?" asked Eshon, kissing the top of her head. "Think you can soar for them again? Think we both can?"  
  
Divatox turned to face him. "The instant I saw you again, I knew the answer to that," she informed him, her eyes stinging with tears of sheer joy. "We won't only soar, Eshon, we'll fly. And never, ever agian come back down."  
  
"And that's the way it wil always be," he promised her, just before his mouth claimed hers. "We shall fly--to the stars and beyond." 


End file.
